My Sunshine
by thewritevoice
Summary: AU where Pietro didn't die and Bruce never left. One day out of the blue Bruce gets a call from his sister saying that his niece is coming to stay. She's not like most girls she's shy, quiet, demure, and proper; plus she's got baggage. But for some reason Pietro is drawn to her and wants to open said baggage. But will she let him? Trigger warning at the beginning of each chapter.
1. Chapter 1

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually talks with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: none.**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel, only my OCs**_

* * *

It was a hot but quiet summer evening in the Avengers common room, simply because everyone was eating. As everyone munched and crunched away Bruce was in deep thought. He was wondering how to tell people the news. It wasn't huge news but it would deal with his past. That means they would ask lots of questions, and he couldn't avoid them, not this time.

She hadn't seen him with the other guy inside of him. She only knew him as a fun loving uncle who favored her. He wasn't as uptight back then, but now he worried of unleashing the other guy. He was fearful she wouldn't accept him if she saw who he had become. But maybe, just maybe, because he accepted her, she could accept him.

It wasn't like Bruce had been putting it off, he himself had just found out less than an hour ago. He wished he had more time to prepare or at least have an actual say in her coming. Not that he minded, he was excited to see her after a few years. She was always his favorite, she had learned her first words from him. He was just nervous.

"What's on your mind Brucie?" Tony asked, he could always tell when something was bothering Bruce. They had that sort of connection.

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but I just found out my niece is flying in tonight. I can put her a hotel-"

"Nonsense," Tony waved the idea away, "she can stay here. She can room with Wanda until we get a room ready. You don't mind do you Wanda?" Wanda shook her head, but that didn't necessarily she agreed. "See, she doesn't mind. How long is she staying?"

"I don't know," this made everyone confused. "My sister is not a force to be reckoned with, she always gets wants. She just told me Chloe was coming, so she's coming, end of conversation." Bruce shook his head and took a sip of his drink.

"How old is she?" Wanda asked, "just so I can prepare myself."

"She's about to turn eighteen, she just graduated last week." Bruce answered.

There was a pause, "I didn't know you had a niece," Steve said.

"Yeah I got, how many is it now, seven nieces and five nephews." Bruce rubbed the back of his head.

"Jeez, how many siblings do you have?" Clint asked, he and the team knew very little about Bruce's past and were quite curious. He never talked about having a family, not even nieces and nephews.

"Well I have a brother and three sisters," Bruce began to explain. "Johnny and Bonnie are fraternal twins and then Chelsea and Kelsey are fraternal twins as well. Twins run in the family. I am the only one of my siblings who isn't a twin. And since they are sixteen years older than me, my nieces and nephews are more like my cousins." Bruce smiled, "you guys will like her. Chloe is extremely quiet, but really fun to be around. Everyone joked that she's a mini me." Bruce looked at his watch and stood, "I have to pick her up from the airport soon."

Natasha stood as well, "I'll go with you, so she can get used to a new face."

Bruce nodded and the two began to leave, but just before Bruce left he turned to face the team. "Oh, and guys, she's been through a lot recently, _please_ don't flirt with her."

* * *

To say Chloe was a nervous wreck was an extreme understatement. She was always a nervous wreck, PTSD did that to you. She was always anxious, hence why her mom thought coming to live with her uncle Bruce was the best option. Her mom loved to hide things, Chloe's mental demons were her most prominent problem. Her mother wanted a perfect family and Chloe couldn't give her that even before _it_ had happened. And now her mother had a good reason to kick her imperfect daughter to the curb. _You need help Chloe, your uncle can help you._

What Chloe needed was her JJ.

Chloe sighed as she pulled her bag over her shoulder. She trudged through the busy airport that was feeding into her anxiety. She didn't like big crowds or new places before though she didn't like small spaces either. It had made her anxiety worse.

Chloe wanted to curl into a ball and sleep her problems away, like she normally did, but she couldn't do that. Sure it wasn't the best way to deal with her problems, but for a moment, just one blissful moment, it worked. Then the moment ceased to exist and Chloe was back to square one. She had to find a way to deal with her problems, but now she had to find her uncle Bruce.

She loved her uncle Bruce.

Out of all her aunts and uncles, Bruce was by far her favorite. She listened to her and taught her things. He didn't hound her to talk about her problems or try to push them under the rug, he just waited until she was ready. Bruce was the uncle who didn't push her past her limits. He made her feel like her own person. He didn't tease her for the way she looked. Bruce didn't compare her to JJ. Everyone else compared her to JJ or her other cousins.

Chloe was the oldest grand daughter and the second oldest grandchild and was supposed to be an example to her juniors. But her other cousins (besides Gia) weren't overly found of her. Along with their parents they too, were mean to Chloe. Sure it wasn't always like that, when they were younger they all got along just fine. But after _it_ happened only Gia and her little sister Tori stayed by her side. Her grandfather would have too if he was still alive.

Chloe was pulled back into reality when she saw her uncle standing across the room. Her heart swelled; all of the good memories she had of him came rushing back. All the late nights watching cartoons, all the "explorations" they had in the woods a few miles from her grandparents house, all the times they had tea parties, all the times they snuck into the basement to play past bedtime, all the times he read her stories, all the times he would explain things to her. All the times he showed he loved her.

"Uncle B!" Chloe whispered. She dropped her bag and left her suitcase. She ran to her uncle and almost jumped into his arms. She had missed him so much, she hadn't seen him in five years. Had it really been five years? Yes it had. His hug had remained the same as it had the last time she was graced with its presence. It was too long. Again she whispered, "I missed you uncle B."

"I missed you too," he admitted into her hair. They lingered for a moment longer then pulled apart at arm's length. "Wow, you became more beautiful; I didn't think it was possible." Chloe blushed at the comment, her uncle always made her blush in a good way. He always complimented her knowing she was self-conscious. Out of the corner of her eye Chloe saw a red head bring her stuff up closer to her. "Oh, Chloe this is Natasha my teammate, Natasha this is my niece Chloe."

Chloe moved from her uncle and shook Natasha's hand and Natasha said, "hi, you can call me Nat, it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Chloe said as she grabbed her stuff. "So how far away is your apartment?" Nat and Bruce shared a look with a raised eyebrow, "what?"

"Uh, Chlo', I live at the Avengers tower now." Bruce said it almost like a question.

"Oh," Chloe blushed again, "I guess it slipped mom's mind." However Chloe knew this was not the case, it was one final 'f-you' to her.

"You'll have to stay in Wanda's room for a few nights until we get you a room ready." Then her uncle reassured her with a smile, "You'll like Wanda she's cool." Chloe nodded and then shouldered her bag to show she was ready. Bruce smiled at his niece and then they headed to the car.

* * *

As soon as the trio got back to the tower Bruce took his niece to Wanda's room. She was sitting on her bed reading a book when Bruce knocked. She let them in and smiled at Chloe. Wanda could practically feel the anxiety radiating off the poor girl, without using her powers. Though she didn't know why, Wanda understood that Chloe had her own problems. Though Wanda didn't read her mind. She knew it was rude and if Chloe wanted to talk to her Wanda would listen.

Bruce began to introduce the two to each other, "Wanda this is my niece Chloe, Chloe this my teammate Wanda." The two young adults shook hands. Once they let go Bruce continued, "I'll leave you to get to know each other." With that he and Nat left the girls.

They two made eye contact for a moment and then Chloe looked down. "Is there a bathroom, I want to get ready for bed."

"Yeah, right here." Wanda showed the girl her bathroom. Chloe pulled out her toothbrush and her makeup wipes and got herself ready for bed in a few minutes. Wanda offered the girl her bed, but she refused and said she would sleep on the floor.

Once the ice broke the girls talked until well into the night. They had some things in common, like they were young adults who were new to New York. They were both considered odd as well. After four hours of talking they finally decided to go to sleep since Wanda had training the next day. They also decided to binge watch Chloe's favorite show, Stranger Things after training since Wanda had never seen it.

The next morning Wanda woke up to Chloe already dressed and putting on her makeup. She watched for a moment as Chloe almost effortlessly did her makeup. She made it look so easy and fun that Wanda wished she could join.

"Did I mess up?" Chloe asked turning to face Wanda. "You were watching me so I assumed I messed up."

"No," Wanda shook her head. "I was just watching. I've always wanted to learned how to apply makeup." Wanda sighed and got out of bed.

"I can teach you." Wanda turned to her and blinked. "I love makeup and I would love to teach you. I would show you now, but I don't have your shade."

"Really?" Wanda asked, she felt like a kid in a candy store.

"Of course," Chloe leaned in closer to her mirror to do her eyeliner. "Think of it as payment for letting me crash in your room."

Wanda nodded, too excited to speak. She was actually going to learn something from a girl that wasn't related to her powers. She was going to learn something she had always wanted to know. Wanda's mother was going to teach her when she was older, but then she had died. Wanda had been to afraid to ask Natasha for fear of her laughing.

Wanda came out of the bathroom, ready to go as Chloe cleaned up her makeup. The two stood up and headed to the kitchen to eat breakfast with the rest of the team. Wanda could tell that her newfound friend was nervous about meeting everyone. She herself still got nervous sometimes when the whole team got together. Wanda had her brother though, and Chloe had her uncle Bruce.

The two finally got the kitchen and sat down. Chloe sat down next to her uncle and Wanda next to her. Wanda turned to face her brother, but he was staring at Chloe. Wanda prayed that this would go well.


	2. Chapter 2

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually talks with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.  
**_

 _ **Warning: fighting and self-harm**_

 ** _Thank you Avaprincess7 for reviewing. And who can see the Gravity Falls reference (I will admit I stopped watching but I couldn't pass up this opportunity.)_**

 _ **I don't own Marvel, only my OCs**_

* * *

Pietro couldn't help but stare at Chloe, she was breathtaking. Her symmetrical face had large watery-blue eyes, a small button nose, plump full lips that looked perfect for kissing, and high cheekbones. Her makeup was flawless, showing off her features. Her flaxen blonde hair that had small waves fell past her behind. She was short which made her curves that were hidden behind baggy clothes stand out more. She had pale skin that seemed so smooth like silk. She was beautiful.

Wanda elbowed him and he pried his eyes away from her. He gave her a look and she gave him one in return. He want to keep looking at the beauty in front of him but he was busy making a face at Wanda.

First Bruce introduced Chloe to Tony who shook her hand even though she tensed. Then Steve, Clint, Vision, which she tensed the same when when they touched. And finally Pietro, when Wanda added that he was her twin brother, Chloe sucked in a breath and tensed leaving everyone confused. Most importantly she didn't shake his outstretched hand, she just turned to her uncle.

Pietro was confused, why didn't she shake his hand like she did everyone else? Sure she was tense but she still did it. Had he somehow offended her? Did she just hate him on the spot? Had she noticed him staring and was freaked out?

Bruce somehow understood her pain and sat her down at the table. Soon everyone was sitting down now and began eating. It was Tony who spoke first, "Chloe right?" She nodded her head, "so no offense, but how are you related to Bruce? You look nothing like him!"

At this Steve elbowed him in the ribs. "You don't have to answer that."

Chloe covered her mouth with her hand as she finished chewing, "it's fine, I get this question a lot. I look a lot like my dad, who is not biologically related to Bruce. The Banner's all have brown hair and eyes, and tan skin. I get the Schuyler's pale everything." After explaining she took a bite of pancake.

Pietro couldn't help but notice how she did things with ease. She ate and talked like it was the easiest thing in the world. And maybe it was, how would he know? He didn't know her at all. He wanted to though, he wanted to know her for the sake of knowing her. He knew she had baggage and he was willing to open it. Though he wanted something more, like a romantic relationship, he wouldn't mind just being her friend.

After a moment Steve asked, "do you have any siblings?" She tensed trying not to cry. Bruce put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"It's fine," she pushed out. "I have a little sister Tori and I have a twin brother, Joey." She choked out.

"You're a twin?" Wanda and Pietro asked in unison. The pair didn't know a lot of twins and were excited to know people like them. Chloe looked down and nodded. "Do you like it?"

After a moment and still looking down Chloe said, "it's the greatest part of my life." Before anyone could say anything the 'Kim Possible' ringtone rang through the kitchen. She Chloe pulled out her phone, "I have to take this."

Chloe practically bolted out of the room to answer the phone leaving the Avengers confused. There was an awkward silence filled the air.

Steve was the first to speak, "is everything okay?"

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know the full story, my sister made it seem like it was all Chloe's fault. She'll tell me when she's ready. Chloe was always anxious but I didn't know she got this bad. Then again I haven't been there." With this Bruce put his head in his hands and Nat started to rub his back.

Pietro stood and Wanda grabbed his arm as a silent way of telling him not to talk to her. He held up his glass to signify he was just filling it up. He walked to the fridge and opened it. Pietro could hear Chloe talking on the phone and though he tried not to he listened in. "I know baby, I didn't want to leave you either, but I had no choice." There was a silence. "I'll visit you as soon as I can okay? I love you so much my love." At this she hung up the phone and he could hear her walking toward the kitchen.

This made Pietro heart sink; she must have been talking to her boyfriend. A girl like that could get any boy she wanted; not that he was saying she was easy and go with any guy. She seemed the kind of girl who wouldn't use a guy, but had a boyfriend who cared for her.

As Pietro was on his way to sit down Chloe came in. They brushed up against her arm. He felt a warmth spread when they touched; Chloe flinched.

She freaking flinched.

Pietro didn't understand why Chloe flinched, he had done anything to upset her. Unless she caught him staring, but that was just awkward. He desperately wanted to proclaim that he would never hurt her in any way shape or form, that she nothing to fear. But he knew it would sound weird so he kept his mouth shut.

Chloe and Pietro both headed to the table and sat down. Somehow Pietro pried his eyes away from her but they returned. They returned when Clint asked, "do you do any sports?"

Chloe smiled but still didn't met his gaze. "As my little sister says, 'I don't sport'."

Bruce crossed his arms and scoffed, "yeah, right. What about all those years of ballet? Or all those flips and tricks you do? You are the only person I know who can do that spider thing."

Chloe blushed which Pietro found adorable. She brought her hair to her side and started to stroke it. "Yeah, but ballet isn't a sport," she whispered. "Besides, girls don't do sports."

At this everyone was confused and a little mad, Chloe didn't seem like the type to push stereotypical gender activities. Though she was shy she seemed like her own person. She seemed independent and thought her own thoughts. But something told them they weren't her words. It was by the way she whispered the statement and looked down. And who said girls couldn't do sports? Wanda and Natasha especially were prime examples of that.

Again Bruce scoffed, unfazed by this. "That's your mother talking, she's freaking crazy and you know it."

Everyone was surprised by Bruce's outburst. He was always quiet and rarely talked out of turn, let alone trash talking someone. He was demure and proper. He didn't seem like the kind to talk badly about anyone, let alone family. Bruce seemed loyal.

And Bruce was loyal. To four people in that nut-job family: Chloe, Joey, Gia, and his father. But his father had passed away many years ago. And it was obvious why he couldn't count Joey anymore. Gia's mother, Chelsea, was mad at him so he couldn't talk to her, so that left Chloe. Chloe was his favorite and he had no problem showing it. The rest of the family hated Chloe for two reasons: her looks and what happened to Joey.

It was obvious that Chloe looked nothing like the Banners'. She was pale, blonde, blue eyed, short and curvy. The other Banner girls had brown hair, deep tans, brown eyes, were tall and were known for being extremely skinny. It was basically the opposite of Chloe.

Though no one had a clue what really happened with Joey, they all blamed Chloe because she was the last person to see him. Joey was loved by everyone and everybody rumored about what happened. It was the excuse to have a valid reason to hate Chloe.

And it made Bruce angry.

Steve cleared his throat, "why don't we start training?" Everyone nodded, trying to get out of the awkward situation. They all stood up to clean their plates.

"Chlo', why don't you come watch?" Bruce asked. It was his attempted at a peace offering and everyone knew it.

"Sure just let me get my sketchbook book, I can finish my sketches while I watch." Chloe stood from the table and headed back to Wanda's room.

Pietro suddenly felt self-conscious about Chloe watching him fight. Would he mess up and make himself look like a idiot? He was very good at doing that. Or would he do good and woo her. He knew that that wouldn't be the case, she wouldn't be easily impressed by him winning. He wished it was in a way, but he didn't want it to be that easy. Pietro liked a challenge, and she was the challenge he needed.

* * *

Chloe and Bruce sat off to the side as the team warmed themselves up. She was shading her drawings with her finger. Bruce kept looking over her shoulder and making an impressed face.

Chloe had always been good at art Bruce remembered that. When she was seven she had made exquisite drawings of the plants he was studying. They were pretty accurate and he was quite impressed, especially when he found out she had only used a twelve pack of crayons.

Chloe was sickly and always had some sort of injury as a child. She was often sidelined because she was injured or sick and couldn't go and play with her brother and her cousins. So she was usually stuck inside with little to do, so she drew. She would draw fantasy things or whatever Bruce was working on. She often would pretend to be his assistant and would follow him around using a long white button up shirt as lab coat and drew little pictures as notes. It never bothered Bruce, she was quiet and willingly to do whatever he said. Plus she was actually really helpful and observant.

Chloe had only gotten better. Her lines were straighter, her curves were always even, her shading had become more accurate, and her details were more advanced. Her drawings had grown with her, they matured with her. They still had a fantasy element, but were more realistic in more ways then one.

Currently she was shading a drawing of someone sitting on the beach and watching the moonlight on the ocean. Even though the girl's back was turned Bruce guessed it was Chloe because the girl's hair was long and pale like the rest of her. The girl sat on her butt with her legs to the side while leaning back on her hands. Everything was black or white or a shade of gray except for the ocean. The ocean was blue with small waves rippling through and was lighter when the moon's light cascaded on the water. Though it was dark blue Bruce could tell it was the Pacific ocean because there was hardly any green. Plus, Chloe lived on the beach back in California.

Bruce had to admit it was a pretty damn good drawing.

"Alright," Steve got everybody, including Bruce and Chloe's attention. "We'll start by pairing you guys up. Natasha and Wanda will go against each other, Clint and Tony, and me and Pietro. Vision can sit this one out; got it?"

The groups went off and began to fight with each other. Nat and Wanda actually worked well together; Wanda's powers and Nat's skills worked in harmony. They were almost dancing, something Chloe loved. The twist and turns and kicks reminded her of how her cousins interacted with each other. They were tough, always trying to best each other, but in the end it was a beautiful fight that nobody ever truly won. They fought like hell, but in the end everything was mended.

Clint and Tony's fight reminded Chloe of how her and JJ acted. Clint was JJ and she was Tony. It was obvious he was holding back and trying not to hurt Tony. Clint was careful and calculated and knew how maneuver the fight. It was a lot like how her and JJ interacted. JJ knew how to proceed around Chloe better then anyone. Not that it was that hard; nobody else besides him, Gia, and Bruce even bothered anymore. Both knew how to tread without hurting her or Tony.

The fight between Steve and Pietro reminded Chloe of her parents had fought when they even bothered to talk. Pietro was her mom and Steve her dad. Like Pietro's speed her mom was quick and her words stung. Pietro darted around but wasn't afraid to throw a punch. Steve was her dad; he may not have thrown as many punches but they worse then others thought. The were quick, painful, and were sure to leave a mark.

The fight between Steve and Pietro was too much. The reminder of them fighting brought back too many memories. She grabbed her sketchbook and bolted out of the room. Bruce soon followed, confused as ever. Nobody really noticed since they were in the middle of fighting.

Bruce knew where Chloe would run, Wanda's room. It was one of the few places she knew and her stuff was in there. When Bruce walked in she was on the floor, her arms and head stuffed in her hoodie. She was rocking back and forth and although Bruce couldn't see it he was certain she was crying. "Chlo'?"

"Please leave," she whispered, not bothering to look up. "Chloe's in sweater town." It was something she did when she got stressed, she hid herself. In her mind if she didn't have to face people, they wouldn't deal with her problems.

Bruce smiled, he remembered doing this when his other nieces and nephews made fun of Chloe. He and Joey would switch who dealt with her and who laid it out to the culprit. "Can Chloe come out of sweater town?" Chloe shook her head and Bruce sat next to her. "I'm not leaving until we talk." After a moment of silence he sighed dramatically.

"It's just," Chloe shifted and leaned on Bruce. "The fighting, brought up bad memories." She sniffled, still hiding inside her sweater. "Mom and dad, the twinnies, school."

"I get it," Bruce said. He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her head. "I'll let you get cleaned up." Bruce got up and left her to calm down.

He shouldn't have left her alone.

* * *

Pietro couldn't find his sister. He _needed_ to talk to her. He was desperate to talk to her about Chloe. He wanted to know everything Wanda knew about her. Pietro kept telling himself that the reason he wanted to know about her wasn't because he liked her, it was because he didn't want to somehow upset her. He wanted to know how to tread carefully around the girl. Yes, that was why. It wasn't because he felt for her.

God, he was desperate.

Pietro decided to check her room, since nine times out of ten that's where she was. So he speed off to his twins room as soon as he was done training, all the while thinking of Chloe. For some unknown reason Pietro couldn't stop thinking of her, something he had never done with a girl. Sure there had been crushes here and there in his life, but he was never this concerned for a girl.

Maybe it was because Chloe was a mystery to him that drew him in. Pietro found himself wondering what exactly shaped her into who she is, what defined her. She wasn't like most girls he had encountered. She had self-respect, unlike the girls who threw themselves at him. No she was different and he liked different.

The door was open and the only light was coming from the ajar bathroom door. Pietro knew something was up, Wanda always liked the lights on or the curtains open. He was the same way, Strucker's base was dull and since they left the Sokovian twins liked as much light as possible.

Crying. Pietro heard crying coming the bathroom. It was soft and light and if he wasn't listening he would have missed it. It was like the person was trying not to let anyone know they were crying. He barely noticed the crying himself. Why would someone be crying? Were they okay? Were they hurt? Pietro thinking it was Wanda surged forward and sped into the bathroom, but was not prepared for what he saw.

There was Chloe, crying as he suspected, that much he expected. But it was the other thing she was doing that surprised him. Chloe was standing over the sink and had a blade to her forearm, and blood pouring from an open wound. Her hoodie's sleeve was pulled up showing many more scars. Some were old some and fading, some new and raw. She had her tears dripping on to her wound.

Pietro surged forward and took the blade from her before she even realized what had just happened. She gasped and turned toward Pietro. "Please don't tell uncle B." The next thing she said cut like the blade he was holding, "I'm not worth it."

Not worth it? She thought she wasn't worth it? How could someone so beautiful think so little of herself? It made no sense in Pietro's mind; how could she not see that she wasn't worth it? She was _so_ worth everything in his mind. He knew everyone had insecurities, he himself included. Everybody at one point or another beat themselves up. But he didn't know how someone could feel so low that they could hurt themselves.

Why would Chloe hurt herself? Why would she give herself more pain then she was already in? Again, this made Pietro confused. Yes, he had heard of self-harm, but he never understood the pain part, which, in itself, was the main concept. He never understood the reason why people hurt themselves, he couldn't understand that the pain could be that bad. Sure he had plenty of pain in his life but that never made him want to hurt himself. He couldn't fathom why people self-harmed; why they felt so low.

So that meant Chloe felt low. Really low. he somewhat knew what that felt like, but he Wanda there to remind him that he wasn't. Chloe felt as if she had no outlet, no one to ask for help. She had a deep hatred for herself and nobody to turn too. She felt so alone that she thought nobody in their right mind cared.

Pietro cared.

Pulling himself back to Chloe he said, "you are worth it. You are enough, you are so enough that there's not enough enough-ness to describe how enough you are." She smiled weakly but didn't meet his gaze. He walked toward her and she back away, "hey, I'm going to hurt you." He took another step toward her and she cowered but didn't move. "I'll make a deal with you; I won't tell you uncle about this if I can make sure you don't hurt yourself."

She looked up at him and tilted her head. "Huh?"

He took another step toward her, "I keep this, I can check your arms for new scars, and you tell me if you want to hurt yourself. Deal?"

Chloe thought for a moment, "deal." She looked up at him and knotted her brows. "Why do you care, is it because I'm Bruce's niece?"

Pietro was a little hurt that she asked this. Did she really think that low of herself. After a moment he said, "I care because you're Chloe."


	3. Chapter 3

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually talks with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: serious family love fluff between Chloe and Bruce.**_

 _ **Also in this chapter I will be making up customs for Sokovia because it is a fictional land.**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel or Wicked or Toy Story 3, only my OCs**_

* * *

The next morning the Avengers (besides Bruce) came into the kitchen to see Bruce cooking. They were surprised to see him acting normal. He was smiling and had a joyful aura around him that made him seem happy. Bruce never seemed this happy, he barely seemed happy at all before Chloe came.

Chloe had made Bruce happy. If the team knew that was all it took they would have had her over a long time ago. She made him have a spring his step that nobody realized was missing. Bruce was more social; he didn't lock himself in his lab.

Bruce was currently making homemade mini waffles and ad ice cream and cookies out. He was using two mini waffles as bread and the cookies and ice cream as the filling for a sandwich. Bruce put whipped cream and a cherry on two of the four sandwiches and set them down at the table. "Nobody touch these." Bruce turned and left the room. The team didn't touch the treats for fear of him unleashing the Hulk but got themselves breakfast.

A few minutes later he returned with Chloe. He had his hands over her eyes and was guiding her toward the table. "Uncle B, I _really_ want to be alone right now."

"If it were me, would you leave me alone?" Bruce asked.

Chloe stopped and turned a little bit toward him (just shy out of his grasp on her eyes). "Touche, ten points to Ravenclaw." Bruce guided her to where the waffle sandwiches were and positioned her in front of them. He moved his hands away. Once Chloe saw what her uncle had made her eyes widen and her mouth dropped. She turned to her uncle, "you made them?!"

"They're not your aunt Kelsey's cookies but it's my waffles and no whipped cream for you." Bruce held a finger up, "I forgot something." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue candle. Bruce put the candle into one of two waffle sandwiches without whipped cream, "happy birthday." The two hugged, "shall we eat?" He asked and she nodded.

They both sat down with the rest of the team. "God, I haven't had these since," Chloe paused, "since, the last day of The Summer of the Headbands!" Chloe lifted the sandwich to her mouth and slowly took a bite. She smiled and set the sandwich down. "We have tried _everything_ to make these but I could never get them just right." Chloe took another bite and sat back while sighing in delight.

"I got you something," Bruce pulled an envelope out of his back pocket. "I ordered them as soon as I found out you were coming." Chloe raised her eyebrow. "What, don't you love me?"

"Of course uncle B," she answered.

"Do you trust me?"

"Not with that look on your face." She grinned at him. He held out the envelope and after a moment she took it. She opened the envelope and pulled out two tickets. Chloe looked at him and Bruce motioned for her to continue. She read them and then exclaimed, "you got me tickets to _Wicked_?!" Chloe had tears in her eyes, she had thought her uncle had forgotten about the deal that they had made.

"I know you know the album by heart, but we were supposed to go it when it came to Philly. I know you really wanted to see it and I did promise we would go see it." Bruce smiled and practically jumped into the hug she gave him. "You're crying, is this a repeat of Toy Story 3?"

Chloe returned to her seat and wiped her tears away. "No these are happy tears, Toy Story 3 were sad tears."

Bruce smiled, "afterward we're going to this Mexican Restaurant I found because I know how much you love Mexican food."

Chloe wiped her tears away, "thank you uncle B."

* * *

After his run Pietro found himself at his sister's door. He kept telling himself he wasn't going to ask her about Chloe, that he just wanted to talk with his sister. They hadn't just talked in awhile; Pietro couldn't even remember the last time they had done that. It was before the experiments that, was at least two years ago. Pietro missed having time between him and his sister, they had so much before that they didn't realize how much they would miss it. It was another thing he took for granted.

"I know you're there," Wanda called out to him. "You can come in." Pietro opened the door and stepped in. Wanda was sitting on her bed reading, she didn't even bother looking up.

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief?" He asked after he studied the title.

"Chloe recommended it, she said it was one of her favorite series, but the movies are terrible. So far it is good, very funny." Wanda stopped talking to turn the page. "Now I know you aren't here to talk about books." She put a book mark in the page she was reading. Wanda set the book off to the side and patted an empty space on the bed. Pietro sat down and the twins turned to face each other. "You want to know about Chloe."

Pietro blinked in surprise, "what? I-"

Wanda smiled and shook her head, "don't deny it brother, you like her." Pietro didn't say anything as he looked away. This made Wanda's smile widen. "What do you want to know?"

Pietro thought for a moment; what did he want to know? What was there to know? She was the biggest mystery he had ever encountered. Pietro didn't mean it in a bad way, he liked a challenge. She was something different then what he had previously been exposed to. She was a rarity, she was different.

Pietro liked different. Since he had joined the Avengers girls practically threw themselves at him. He had to admit he liked the attention, but one night stands weren't really his thing. Back in Sokovia you didn't have sex until you were married. It was considered taboo if you did so, it just wasn't right. Pietro didn't break that rule, it was the way he was raised.

Another rule was that you didn't choose who you were married too, your parents chose. Girls got married at eighteen and boys at twenty one. It was odd for a girl Wanda's age to not be married, but the two had signed up for the experiments at eighteen. Plus, Pietro wasn't just going to give his sister away to some guy that didn't love her.

Now that they were in America things could change; the could marry whoever they wanted as long as the other approved. Here, they were different people in a new world.

Pietro finally answered the question, it was something simple. "She is easy to upset, how do I not do that?"

Wanda sighed and grabbed his hand. "Don't ask Chloe about her brother. I don't know exactly what, but something happened to him that hurt her. Though she loves to talk about her sister Tori, from what I can tell they idolize each other. Is that the right word?" Pietro shrugged, they both had room to improve with their English. "She is fragile, be careful."

"I will."

* * *

Tony had a genius plan that he knew would work. Heck, he hadn't done anything yet and it was already in motion. Tony _knew_ that this plan would go off without a hitch. Sure there was a set back, but it didn't really matter. He needed someone to help him.

There was no way Bruce would ever agree to this, Steve would probably tell Bruce, the twins were apart of the plan along with Chloe, and Natasha would probably knock him out then tell Bruce. Tony's best option was Clint.

And at this moment Tony was trying to find Clint. Jarvis kept saying that he was in the kitchen, but Tony didn't see him. He looked all around but couldn't find him.

The fifth time he walked into the kitchen Clint made himself known. "Tony, you're pacing."

Tony jumped and turn to the fridge. There was Clint sitting on top of the fridge eating a sandwich. "What the hell Clint?" He asked putting his hand to his chest. "Why are you even up there?"

Clint shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. "I like scaring people, plus it makes me feel taller." He hopped down. "Who ya looking for?"

"You actually." Tony admitted. Clint took another bit and motioned for Tony to continue. "I have a plan. I'm going to get Chloe and Pietro together."

At this Clint stopped chewing and almost dropped his sandwich. "Wha-?"

"Here me out, we get them together okay? It's obvious that he likes her and there's no way he would want to upset her or make Bruce angry. He won't act on his feelings and we know Chloe's to shy to do anything. And who says these feeling will go away? So, we give them a little nudged, a little push in the right direction. And we can't say that Wanda won't like her, they are already good friends."

"Tony," Clint started, "that's their _feelings_ you're messing with."

Tony held up a finger, "see I knew you'd say that. If this goes south I will Bruce it was all my idea and you had nothing to do with it. I will take fully responsibility."

Clint stopped, he had to admit it was a pretty good offer. Make the 'Quick Little Bastard' happy and if that didn't work he would see Tony fall. Pietro did deserve some happiness, that much he agreed with. He literally almost _died._ Yes he deserved some happiness. Plus, Clint was kind of bored right now and he wouldn't throw away his chance to see Tony's ego fail.

"I'm in."

* * *

 _ **Please review!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually talks with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: serious family love fluff between Chloe and Bruce (again, sorry not sorry),weight issues along with not eating, bullying and mental abuse.**_

 _ **Also I talk about**_ _ **Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome, which is a real disorder. I have it, so I know what it is like to suffer.**_

 _ **Thank you a-unicorn-among-sheep and Guest for reviewing.**_

 _ **Everything in Italics is a memory.**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel, Wicked, Stranger things, or Beauty and the Beast. Only my OCs**_

* * *

It was around seven that night when Chloe and Bruce re-entered the tower. They had had a wonderful day, they had seen _Wicked_ (which unsurprisingly made Chloe cry), toured around the theater district, and had dinner at an amazing Mexican restaurant. Bruce had made Chloe's birthday not seem so sad.

When they entered the kitchen they were greeted by Natasha, Pietro, Wanda, Tony, and Clint. The group had been waiting for the two to return, but for different reasons.

Natasha had been waiting to talk to Bruce and Bruce alone. She had wanted to have some alone time with him, to discuss what the hell they were. Since they had kissed they had only been caught staring at each other longingly. They had barely talked and Natasha desperately wanted to change that. But she also was wary because of Chloe. Anyone could see that she was important to Bruce, now making her important to Nat. She was worried that Chloe wouldn't like her and what she had with Bruce was gone.

Wanda waited for Chloe because she wanted to finish _Stranger Things._ Holy crap, it was such a good show in Wanda's mind. She couldn't stop thinking about it. She had wanted to know how it had ended. They would have finished it in one sitting, but Wanda had been tired from training and wanted to sleep. Now she had regretted that wise decision.

Although Pietro said he was just waiting with Wanda to keep her company, he really wanted to see Chloe. He had no reason to talk to her, but wanted to do so. He hadn't said two words to her and yet he was pulled in. Unknowingly she had him wrapped around her finger in just two days.

Tony and Clint (well mostly Tony, Clint was just there to see what would happen and/or save the billionaire's sorry ass, preferably the latter) were there simply because Pietro was where Chloe would be. They had no real reason to be there but then to muddle in business that wasn't theirs.

Bruce walk to the fridge and began putting the leftovers from the Mexican place while Chloe stood by the table. "Thank you Uncle B, I had a great time."

"Anytime, but one more thing," Bruce held out his hand to her.

She blushed and pushed herself away, "if you're doing what I think you're doing-"

"Come on Chlo', it's family tradition." Bruce retracted his hand a bit and then stuck it back out.

"I'm sorry," Tony interrupted, "but what is going on?

Chloe shook her head but Bruce didn't back down. It was quite clear that Chloe had no desire to do what her uncle was suggesting, but Bruce was being firm.

"In our family it's tradition," Bruce started, "that the father or the closest male relative share a dance with the birthday girl. And since I'm her only male relative around it has to be me." He stepped toward her, "Come on Chloe, please."

Chloe looked down for a second and then reluctantly said, "fine." She walked toward him as Bruce pulled out his phone. Chloe was blushing like a mad man, she _really_ didn't want to do this, but only did it to make her uncle happy. She didn't want to embarrass herself in front of _The Avengers,_ but if it made her uncle happy she would.

Bruce set down the phone as the music for the song _Beauty And The Beast_ from the movie of the same title played. Chloe put her head down and covered her face to hide her blush. At this Bruce smiled and took her hands from her face. He positioned themselves and began to do the dance from the movie. "Come Chlo' I know you know the words. Sing!"

"I am dancing with you in a kitchen filled with people I barely know, don't push it." She retorted quietly and Bruce chuckled. She was even shyer then she was as a child, he didn't know that was possible.

Chloe and Bruce did the whole dance, the spins and all (though it took much longer then Chloe would have liked). The group had applauded them which made both blush. With little warning Chloe flung her arms around Bruce and hugged him with such a force that her almost fell over.

"Thank you," Chloe whispered to her uncle, "for making my first birthday without him bearable." Bruce just smile and pulled her close.

Chloe and Bruce held each other tight, like the other was a lifeline. The held each other for dear life, as if when they separated they would never see each other again. It was hug to make up for the five years they hadn't seen each other. Five long and hard years that were gone, that they couldn't go back. They couldn't change what had happened to them, that they were damaged, badly damaged.

But not beyond repair. They still could get help, learn to live with their decisions, accept themselves and each other. There was room for improvement even though there didn't seem like it. There was light at the end of the tunnel, but they were wearing dark sunglasses and facing the wrong way. They were so stuck in what happened they couldn't see the good that would come.

Bruce and Chloe finally pulled apart and Chloe walked over to Wanda. "Do you want to finish-?" Before Chloe could finish her question Wanda was pulling her out of the room toward the T.V.

"Well," Tony started, "she was impatient. And that was cute, the whole dancing thing though I would have picked a more upbeat song."

"Uh Bruce," Natasha ignored Tony," can we talk?"

Bruce's heart skipped a beat though he knew this was coming. He knew he had to face Natasha and talk about what they were. Bruce nodded and the two left the room. Pietro soon followed suit to god knows where.

Tony turned to Clint, "see, we got this. We can get them together."

Clint rolled his eyes. "I have to go back to my family. Don't do anything stupid and if your plan back fires I want a video of Bruce murdering you."

* * *

The three mornings later Steve, Natasha, Wanda and Pietro were sitting at the table eating various foods for breakfast when Bruce dragged Chloe in. They were surprised to see her, since they were informed Chloe had crashed. It was something she did because of her undiagnosed insomnia. She would stay up for days and then crash for a day or two. Bruce said she had been doing this since she was little, apparently. She would fall asleep in the most random places: the dog's bed, a pile of dirty blankets, under and on the stairs, on top of the refrigerator, and the bathroom sink once (don't ask).

Unbeknownst to Wanda, Chloe had crashed in her room and Wanda couldn't get her up. She had rushed to Bruce in a panic making everyone panic. Bruce had just sighed and calmly explained why she wouldn't wake up and to not wake her. If Chloe was woken up she was impossible to deal with. He would think that her mother would have gotten her help after all these years, but this was "Brutally Blunt Bonnie" he was talking about. His sister probably told her to figure it out and stop complaining.

"Uncle B I'm fine, really." Chloe yelped as Bruce lifted her up and place her on the counter.

"Chloe you're shaking," Bruce argued. The Avengers could clearly she the girl shaking. Bruce opened the fridge and began to look through it. "Your blood sugar probably dropped again. When was the last time you ate?"

"When we went out," Chloe whispered.

"That was three days ago!" Bruce exclaimed, "you are going to eat something sugary."

Chloe began to pick at her nails. It was very clear she was uncomfortable. "Uncle B, I have gone longer without eating. Besides, I've been eating nothing but junk since I got here, I need to lose weight."

When Chloe said that a bang could be heard in the fridge. Bruce closed the fridge and walked closer to Chloe. He, well all of the Avenger present couldn't believe what she she said. "Say that again."

Chloe blushed a deep scarlet and bowed her head down, clearly embarrassed. This was not a conversation she wanted to have with her uncle, _especially_ in front of 'Earth's Mightiest Heros'. It just wasn't appropriate. Chloe wished she hadn't said anything, whenever she opened her fat mouth something went wrong. Her stupid fat mouth.

In Chloe's mind everything on her was fat. Fat arms, fat hands, fat fingers, fat cheeks, fat stomach, fat thighs, fat toes, fat everything. Fat, fat, fat, fat. In Chloe's mind she was a fatty. People told her all the time; people online, the kids at school, (most) of her family, including her mother. So may people constantly reminded her. If so many people told her they must be right. Nothing on her was skinny.

All Chloe wanted was to be skinny. It was all she mostly thought about; numbers, mainly. Her weight, her size, her measurements, her height, and the calories she took in. She was so fixed on numbers, it was ridiculous. Though she never focused on how much she could lift, it was low.

In sixth grade Chloe was diagnosed with Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome or AMPS. Basically, she felt pain more often and more intensely than others. She would randomly swell or feel more in a random area for no reason. And when she did get hurt, it hurt worse then it should have. A light thump on her arm can leave a nasty bruise, it was most definitely a curse. She constantly in a lot of pain and strenuous things like weightlifting hurt like hell.

Pain was sometimes all Chloe felt; physical, mental or emotional. She had felt the heartache when JJ left her, when she hurt her own brother, when she hurt her sister Tori when she left. What hurt most was when her mother kicked her out and her father did nothing to stop it. He just sat there in his chair and watched as her mother said some pretty unforgivable things to her. There was almost no love in the Schuyler household.

The only love in that household was the bond between Chloe, her sister, and her brother. But her brother now probably only loved her sister, after _it_ happened Chloe wouldn't be surprised if he hated her, she was the reason he was gone. She didn't know how Tori, Gia, or her uncle could ever love her.

Focusing back on her uncle, Chloe lowered her head and sheepishly looked at him. "I need to lose weight. Mom said-"

Bruce looked angry, and he was, but not at Chloe. He was mad at his sister for drilling in Chloe's brain that she needed to be skinny like the other girls in the family. That she needed make-up to make her less pale. That she needed to have less curves then she was born with. That she needed to be something she wasn't.

There was so much Bruce wanted to say and there were so many things she needed to hear. He wanted to profess that what Chloe's mother had said was wrong, but Bruce knew his words of wisdom would fall on deaf ears. Chloe had been trained to hate herself, something that took years to install and more to uninstall.

After a moment of thinking he decided to say, "Chloe I'm not going to lecture you. I'm just going to say this: Would Poppy let you do this?"

Chloe froze at this, would Poppy let her do this? Would her grandfather want her to slowly kill herself? Would he let her think those horrible thoughts that were once said to her? Would he watch as she starved herself just to lose weight? Would he let her mother kick her out? Would he let her mother say those awful things to her? Would he be the one to comfort her, instead of her baby sister, when her brother left? Would he stand by her when everyone in the family watched her crash an burn?

No, not her grandfather. Her Poppy would never let the things that had happened to her happen. He would comfort her with words of love. He would tell her how she was worth every ounce of affection she was given. He would never let her mother, grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins (besides Gia) say things that made her feel oh so low. Chloe's grandfather, Bruce's dad, would never let anything like that happen to her.

Chloe looked at her uncle, "I-"

At this Bruce pulled his favorite niece into a hug. "We'll work through this together okay?" Chloe nodded and wiped tears away. Bruce whispered, "I didn't try to kidnap you for nothing." Chloe smiled a small smile.

* * *

 _Bruce remembered his father saying that he was now an uncle and he had to take care of his new niece and nephew and the other babies on the way. That he had to be a big boy and be strong for them because they were only babies and couldn't take care of themselves, they were fragile. Especially his niece, Chloe, she had some health issues. He responded with "how? I'm only six!"_

 _So here Bruce was with his niece and nephew, alone in his playroom. Looking back it was a bad idea to leave two newborns alone with a child but Bruce's siblings and his mother were trying to figure out what to do. The didn't know what to do with Chloe, they could tell that she would be an 'embarrassment' already. They were talking about putting her up for adoption because she looked funny._

 _After Bruce consulted his dictionary and found out what 'adoption' meant he decided to be what his father said. He decided that he would step up and take care of his niece that he had never seen before. He would be the big boy everyone was telling him to be._

 _Using one of the chairs that went along with the table the two babies were sitting on he climbed on the table. Bruce saw two carries, the first one held his oldest and only nephew Joey. He knew this baby was him because he wore all blue, baby boys only wore blue. So that the other carrier held his niece._

 _Bruce got down from the table and moved the chair closer to the other carrier. He climbed back on the table and peered over to wear his niece was._

 _Bruce gasped; there was nothing wrong with this baby! Chloe was a little tiny but, was just as cute as her brother, maybe even cuter. She had little blonde curls atop her head, pale skin, and tiny features. She was dressed in all pink and had a little pink bow in her hair._ _Chloe slowly opened her eyes to reveal pale blue eyes. When she saw him she tilted her head looked at him like 'who the heck are you'?_

 _Bruce couldn't figure out what was wrong with this baby, she looked just just fine. She was blonde with blue eyes, there was nothing wrong with that. His best friend Jamie had blonde hair and blue eyes and he was just fine. Though he couldn't see what the problem was he was going to help Chloe no matter what._

 _"Don't worry baby, I"ll save you." Bruce whispered, grabbing her tiny hand. Chloe closed her eyes and fell back asleep as he began his work. Bruce couldn't take her out of her carrier, he couldn't hold a baby without permission. He decided to take her carrier and all, which was quite the feat. The carrier was heavy but he put on the chair and jumped down, then brought the carrier down to the floor._

 _Bruce began to push the carrier out of the playroom toward the stairs to his room. It was a long and grueling process, it took him five minutes to go ten feet. He wasn't very strong, he was only six._

 _"Bruce, what are you doing?" Bruce turned to face his father, the only family member who wasn't deciding Chloe's fate. "You have to be careful with Chloe."_

 _"I'm saving her," Bruce answered pushing his glasses up. "Mommy and the adults want to put her up for adoption, so I'll take her."_

 _Bruce's father made a face that Bruce knew he was mad. Bruce then cowered, thinking he was mad at him. "Let's put Chloe back with her brother," his father said calmly. "I'll talk to them, we are not getting rid of Chloe." He lifted Chloe up and grabbed Bruce hand. They put Chloe back and Bruce's father went back to talk with his wife and children. He was not happy._

* * *

 ** _Please review or no new chapter!_**


	5. Chapter 5

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually talks with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: nightmares, cuts on wrists, anorexia, being forced to starve yourself, and forced throwing (bulimia).**_

 _ **Thank you Lady Jensen, abstract0118, Flower Child23, and Mcduffie145 for reviewing.**_

 ** _Everything in Italics is a memory. This is kind of a long chapter it's almost nine thousand_** ** _words! But it reveals something. Next chapter will dive into what happened to Chloe._**

 _ **I don't own Marvel, The Dallas Cowboys, Supernatural, McDonald's, "Living On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi, The All American Rejects, The Twilight Zone, or the Brady Bunch, Starbucks, The Addams Family Musical; only my OCs**_

* * *

It was the next night at around three a.m was when all hell seemed to break lose in Wanda's bedroom. It was a night when the calm ocean suddenly crashed. A hellish storm that shock the two who were mainly involved. It was a great storm thundered leaving a terrible mess in it's wake. There was so much debris in it's wake that an average person couldn't pass through.

Luckily, Wanda knew what she was doing. This wasn't her first rodeo.

It was around three a.m when Wanda awoke to her bed being hit repeatedly. She was quite confused and just wanted to go back to sleep. Then she felt another thump and hear a girlish whimper which her sit up alert. She was used to her brother when he had nightmares, and these girlish sounds were definitely _not_ her big tough brother. Not mister 'I-might-have-got-shot-seven-times-and-was-experimented-on-but-I-will-bitch-about-a-paper-cut-for-days'.

Then Wanda remembered that she wasn't alone and was still sharing a room with Chloe. (Chloe had a room but wanted to stay with Wanda one more night, not that the brunette was complaining, she liked having Chloe in her room). Wanda turned on the lamp next to her bed and carefully climbed out of bed. She walked to the edge of her bed to see what was going on with her new friend.

Chloe was a mess. She was covered in sweat which was probably worse since she was tangled in her blanket from thrashing about. She was crying while she slept and her hair was fanned out around her. The thing that really scared Wanda was the fact Chloe was clawing at her scarred wrist making herself bleed.

Wanda decided to help her friend, but deal with her wrists when Chloe was calm. Wanda came around her and knelt down by her face. She could hear Chloe crying out, "JJ! Please, I'll do whatever you want just don't hurt him! JJ, don't leave me, please!"

These cries just about broke Wanda's heart, she didn't know who JJ was, but she could see Chloe cared for the mystery person, whoever they maybe. "Chloe wake up." She continued to thrash and scratched herself. Wanda held down her weak arms and began calling to her. "Chloe please wake up." Wanda was very upset and thought of maybe calling Bruce, but then she would have to leave Chloe alone (she could have gotten F.R.I.D.A.Y to get him, but she didn't think of that). Wanda kept calling to her friend but she still did not wake. In one final attempt she yelled, _"Chloe!"_

At this Chloe bolted up and the two girls clocked heads. "JJ!" She cried and frantically looked around ignoring the fact that the two friends had head-butted.

Wanda thought about joking about how Chloe was to absorbed in her nightmare to notice her, but decided against it. Wanda knew she had to tread carefully, that Chloe was fragile. Wanda decided to start with a simple "are you okay?" Chloe snapped her head around to the sound of Wanda's voice. After a moment she nodded, but both girls knew she was lying, but kept quiet for Chloe's sake. "Lets get you cleaned up, okay?"

Chloe tilted her head in confusion. Wanda motioned to her wrists and Chloe just stared at them. "Oh," she replied, not expecting that. Her voice sounded small and scratchy, like she had been crying. She inwardly cringed at her voice, her voice was delicate, you could tell when she had been crying, yelling, singing loudly, and things like that.

The two stood and went to the bathroom that they had been sharing. Not a word was spoken as Wanda cleaned the girl's cuts. Chloe was busy looking at the floor and Wanda was cleaning her friend's cuts.

Chloe wished the floor would swallow her whole, she didn't want to be here. She wanted to be somewhere far far away where she didn't have to be someone she wasn't. Chloe wanted out, to go somewhere. Maybe back in California, that house didn't feel like home way before _it_ happened, but Tori was there. Tori made it worth all the while.

"Uh," Chloe moved her hair out her face. "Can we have a 'sober drunk talk'?" Chloe bit her lip as Wanda wrapped gauze around her wrist.

Wanda scrunched her face in confusion. She had never heard of a 'sober drunk talk' in her life. She knew what the words meant separately, but never heard the phrase. Wanda often got confused about American slang and this was one of those times. "What is a 'sober drunk talk'?"

Chloe blushed, not realizing what she had said. "Sorry its a term that me and the twinnies made up. It's basically where you just talk about whatever you want with no limits." She picked at the gauze on her wrists. "We use it after one of us has a bad day or a nightmare to vent." Chloe looked up at Wanda, "I'm sorry, you probably want to sleep-"

"It is fine," Wanda assured. She knew that Chloe wouldn't want to be alone, plus she was already wide awake from panic. "I probably will not be good at it since I have never done it. But I know firsthand what it is like to suffer from nightmares, and it is not fun. So let us do the 'sober drunk talk' thing." Wanda said bravely and both girls erupted into a fit of giggles.

Chloe grabbed her newfound friends hand and led her to where she had been sleeping. "Lay down," Wanda did so. Chloe laid down with her head next to her's but was laying in the opposite direction.

"Now what?" Wanda had clue as to what she was doing, Chloe could be preforming a ritual and she wouldn't have a clue.

"We just talk, like friends."

Wanda didn't know how to really be friends with a girl. For most of her life it had just been her and Pietro, and Wanda was okay with that. But sometimes, especially when girl problems came about, she wished that she had a girl to talk to. She wished she had someone to relate to.

Now Wanda wasn't saying she didn't want Pietro or that she wanted to change him. She wouldn't change him for the world. She just wished she a had a girl around who she could talk about things like boys or paint her nails with. Wanda wished she had someone, like a sister to have normal girl moments with.

Maybe she could have moments like this with Chloe. She thought about talking with Natasha, but she seemed to cold and uncaring. Nat seemed to not really like Wanda and she knew why. It was because she messed with her mind, not that she was that surprised, if the roles were reversed she would be upset too. The only people in the tower who's minds she had messed with was Pietro, Clint, and now Chloe.

Wanda was used to people looking at her weird because she was weird. First when she was little and her and Pietro's parents had died, then when they were at Strucker's base, and now with the Avengers. She had accepted that she was weird. Now she had to be normal.

Somehow Chloe noticed her discomfort and confusion, "I'll start, you know what we used to do that was weird? Me, my brother, the twinnies, and sometimes uncle B and Jamie, used to sit at this table in our grandparents backyard and do this weird thing. It was black metal and a bumpy glass top that you couldn't see through. And there weren't enough chairs for all eight, sometimes nine, of us, so we'd stack books on beach chairs. We'd sit around it at night and have these deep conversations at it. Like, we never meant too, we would eat dinner at the table because there wasn't room for all of us inside, and the conversation would be so good that before we knew it, bam, it'd be like one in the morning. Then when it got cold we would do it in the basement and we would lay on the floor. We started calling it 'sober drunk talks', because it reminded us of when our parents got drunk and talked."

Wanda smiled, that was the most she had heard Chloe talk at all. "Really?" Chloe nodded, smiling at the memories. "That sounds nice. Pietro and I would talk like that, but not with as many people. We did not have any other family our age, it was always him and I." Wanda usually did not like talking about it but with Chloe she felt like she could.

After a while of getting to know each other Chloe finally got the courage."Can I ask you something?" Chloe asked and Wanda nodded. "What exactly are your powers?"

Wanda had been dreading this, Chloe asking about her powers. When she told most people they were usually frightened away. She didn't wan to lose her new friend, but sure as hell didn't wan to be caught lying to her. "I have telekinesis and I can alter people's minds, basically I can make people see their worst fear and their best memory." Wanda looked away.

Chloe put a hand on Wanda's arm, "have you ever used it on me?" Wanda shook her head, "have you used it on my uncle?" She turned back and met eyes.

Chloe looked at her pleadingly, she had to tell the truth. "Yes, but I regret it." Chloe remained eye contacted with her. "I was not prepared for what I saw." Chloe tilted her head in confusion, "everyone else I saw their power stopping them or their past catching up. But with Bruce I saw an old man holding a baby. He sung to her then he handed her off. Then a young girl, a young teenager, came in and said that she hated Bruce for not stopping him. I didn't understand it." Chloe gasped and sat up. "What, do you know what it means?"

"Did the old man have a scar from his right ear to part of his cheek?" Wanda nodded as Chloe began to tear up. "And the baby, was she in a blanket with stars and crescent moon on it?"

Chloe held her breath until Wanda said, "yes." She put her hand to her mouth and tears fell. "What is it? Do you know what it means?" Wanda began to rub Chloe's back as she cried.

After a few heartbreaking moments Chloe answered. "The man was my grandfather and the baby was me." She lightly sobbed and then continued, "my family, besides Bruce and my grandfather wanted to put me up for adoption. If it wasn't for Bruce telling him who knows what would have happened. Bruce was scared of losing me, that's why he's so protective of me. And-" Chloe couldn't finish.

"He was scared of hurting you." Wanda finished. Her brain was buzzing, she would have never guessed that in a million years. She understood that Bruce cared for the man (though she didn't know who he was), but she never understood the part with the baby or the girl. She had rightly guessed the girl was the baby. Wanda at one point had thought that the baby was maybe Bruce's, but then she found out he couldn't have children. She laid awake many a night wondering who this baby could have been, if she could help get the baby or the girl back.

And in a way Wanda was bringing her back. The baby/girl was Chloe all along. She herself had no part in Chloe coming, but she become friends with her. Chloe was starting to become the old Chloe that Bruce remembered from his childhood. The one who asked a million questions, had witty comebacks, and sang whenever she felt like it. Wanda was helping the girl come out of her shell, to be who she truly wanted to be.

"Can you do me a favor?" Chloe asked and Wanda nodded. "Can you show me my happiest memory? Most of my memories involve my brother, and I just need to know which one is my favorite so I can't pick in apart."

Wanda was taken back by this request, Chloe _willingly_ wanted her to scour through her mind? Was this girl crazy, or just desperate? "Are you sure?" Chloe nodded. The two girls faced each other and Wanda entered her mind.

* * *

 _Chloe was walking down a dimly lit hallway. The only light coming into the hallway was underneath a door that Chloe was heading to. She finally reached the said door and lightly knocked on it, "JJ?" After a moment she said, "wait, I don't need to knock," and opened the door._

 _Chloe peered into a nice looking bedroom. It had hardwood floors and the walls were covered in many football posters and pictures. The posters were mainly for one team, The Dallas Cowboys, but a few other teams were there. The photos were of places the owner had been, he was in them along with Chloe and sometimes a small girl._

 _There was a bed that at first glance seemed like a bunk bed, but had a couch and desk underneath. It was a light oak set with a ladder next to it. There was a dresser next to it._

 _"JJ?" Chloe asked again and moved toward the bed. There was a lump on the bed that cover by a blanket. "JJ, you awake?" A groan was heard and Chloe walked to the bottom of the ladder. "You're gonna make me climb all the way up there aren't you?" Chloe climbed up the ladder and one last time asked, "JJ?" She pulled the blanket up to reveal a boy._

 _He was handsome, anyone could see that. He had semi-long brown hair that was messed up from sleeping, it looked soft even though it was a mess. He was very tall and had big muscles; he barely fit in his bed. He looked as if he could lift anything at any time. He was tan, you could say he was Italian. The boy, JJ, opened his eyes to reveal big brown eyes._ _"CC?"_

 _"I'm sorry," Chloe said as she began to climb down the ladder. "I thought you were awake."_

 _JJ grabbed her arm, "it's okay. You couldn't sleep could you?" Chloe shook her head, "come on." JJ turned on his side and she climbed in. She laid there, on her side, facing him. There was barely any room for him alone, but he let Chloe in. They looked at each other for a moment, they spoke no words but the conversation laid in their eyes. He moved a piece of her hair out of her eyes and she looked down. JJ somehow sensing it asked, "what's wrong?"_

 _Chloe looked down, "Nothing's wro-"_

 _Chloe was interrupted by a stomach, her stomach, growling. The two looked down at her stomach, "CC, when's the last time you ate?" JJ moved hair that had fallen out of place._

 _"At breakfast," her stomach growled again, "two days ago. Mom said I need to lose twenty pounds in three weeks." Chloe looked down, she hated making anyone, her mom, especially JJ upset. Chloe was just that kind of person. But the thing was if she listened to her mom JJ got upset, and if she listened to him her mother got upset._

 _"Come on," JJ began to push her toward the ladder. "We're going to McDonald's."_

 _"But JJ," Chloe whined, "what if mom and daddy find out, or Tori has a nightmare? We're the only ones who can calm her down. And you need sleep, you have a game tonight that I forgot about, they'll be colleges looking at you." She began her descent down the ladder._

 _"Tori hasn't had a nightmare in months and if mom and dad find out I'll take the blame. As for my game, my twin's well being is far more important. I'll sleep in the car, or during study hall. We are getting you food." JJ grabbed her arm and led her out of his room. "You go to the garage, I'll get the keys."_

 _The two walked down the hall to a staircase that was down the back of the hallway. It was pitch black down the staircase, but the two had done this before. When they got the bottom, Chloe went one way and Joey went the other. Chloe just went right next to where the staircase ended and went out to the garage. Chloe flicked on the light and stood there for a few moments. Then Joey entered and quietly closed the door. He jingled a pair of keys and both broke out into a smile._

 _Joey threw the keys to Chloe and she just barely caught them, "I sported!" She exclaimed as she unlocked the car._

 _Joey shook his head and climbed into the 1967 Chevy Impala that they 'shared'. The twins had gotten it when they had got their permits. Well actually Joey got pick it out, Chloe had no say whatsoever, but he knew his sister loved the car and driver from the show_ Supernatural. _Not that he was complaining. It was an amazing car and he loved it just as much as Chloe did. They named it Zoey._

 _Chloe carefully backed out of the garage that Joey had opened. The car purred as she drove down their long driveway and then into the street. Once they finally got far away enough from the pesky neighbors who would rat on her, Chloe began to blast the radio. The song "Living On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi._

 _The night was oddly warm for a November night in California. It wasn't overly hot or cold; it was just warm enough that the pair could roll the windows down and not be cold. It felt like a warm spring day, but there was no sun at this time at night or morning, whatever you want to call it. It was a nice night the stars were shinning up above, particularly Orion, Joey noticed (Chloe would have too, if she wasn't preoccupied)._

 _Joey watched as his sister let loose. Her hair was down, which was odd enough, their mother made her wear it up someway. Half her hair was flowing in the wind from the car window open. The other half fell to the car's seat in long tendrils that were once straight as a pin but now were turning curly. The were long coils that were lighter then her normal pale blonde since the two had gone surfing almost every chance they got._

 _Chloe wore no makeup for she was supposed to be asleep. Her skin was paler without it, again their mother made her wear tanner makeup to hide her paleness. Chloe's skin was free of blemishes, it hadn't been in a longtime, the stress of school, taking care of Tori, and their mother made her break out. Her skin was shiny, not oily shiny, but a healthy shiny. It looked smooth, it reminded Joey of white satin._

 _Chloe was smiling, laughing even, something that happened rarely. She was so stressed it seemed as if she had forgotten how to smile, truly smile. Tori constantly tried to make her smile, and sometimes she succeeded but it wasn't a_ true _smile. Now even her mother chided her on smiling, "be careful when you smile. If you smile to much your face will wrinkle, if you don't smile enough you'll scare potential husbands away."_

 _She was singing her heart out, something she hadn't done since freshman year two years ago. Taking a leap of faith (well it wasn't that big of a leap, her and Gia did a theatre program over the summer but she knew no one at this place) Chloe auditioned for the school musical and got a really good role. She worked her butt off and was so excited. Joey and Tori were so happy for her, but that happiness was short lived. Her dad didn't even come and her mother threw a fit that it was an inappropriate show._

 _Chloe looked so happy here, which made Joey happy. She and Tori were the most important things in his life, not any other girls, not school, and surely not football. No, his twin and his little sister. If they weren't happy, he wasn't happy. They were the only thing he cared about, loved even._

 _"Woah, oh, we're halfway there, woah, oh, livin' on a prayer!" Chloe belted out as they pulled into McDonald's. She laughed as she turned down the radio. "Alright, you want the usual?" He gave her a look, "alright sorry I asked."_

 _Chloe pulled up to the speaker. She put a hand on the wheel and leaned toward it. "Hi, welcome to McDonald's, I'm Wendy, what can I get for you?"_

 _The two gave each other a quick glance at the whole Wendy at McDonald's thing. "Hi," Chloe started, "can we get a large Grand Mac meal with a coke and a side salad."_

 _Joey shook his head at this. He leaned toward the speaker, "no side salad, she'll take a ten piece chicken nugget with fries and sweet tea." Chloe gave him a look and he waved her off._

 _They finished their order and drove up to the window. Chloe payed and the person, Wendy, recognized Joey. "Hey you're the quarterback for Clearmont." She leaned forward in a way the purposely making her breasts bigger. "Midnight run for your girl, because you can do so much better." She batted her eyes flirtatiously._

 _"For his sister and you're right he can do so much better, then you," Chloe retorted and drove to the next window. "I'm getting sick of people thinking we're dating. I mean I get we don't look alike, but it's so annoying." Joey sighed and shook his head as Chloe got the food._

 _She pulled into a parking spot as Joey began to take out the food. He handed her her nuggets and began to eat his supersized burger. Chloe just stared at the box, wanting and not wanting to eat. She couldn't stop thinking of the bad chemicals and calories she would put in herself if she ate them. And if her mother found out she so much as_ thought _of eating the nuggets she'd throw a fit._

 _But, Chloe was so hungry, starving actually. She hadn't eaten to two days and it was taking it's toll on her. In the back of her mind, she wanted to devour the food as fast as she could, but she couldn't. Chloe had nineteen days to lose eighteen more pounds. At the rate she was going she wouldn't be able to do it._

 _"You gonna' eat CC?" Joey asked, wiping his mouth._

 _"I think I'll pass." Chloe answered quietly as she tried to give her brother the nuggets back. She couldn't do it, just the thought of those unwanted calories made her want to vomit. Maybe she could eat a little bit and then throw up. Yeah, that was the backup plan._

 _Joey put his burger down and pushed the nuggets to her. He somehow read her mind, "Chloe, have you been throwing up your food?" The teasing light in his eyes was gone; worry and concern filled his face. Chloe looked down in shame and he took that as a yes. "Chlo' you can't do this to yourself."_

 _"I'm not," she sniffled, "mom said I had to." Despite wanting to lose weight, Chloe never made herself purge. She had stomach problems so when she did throw up it was painful and she couldn't stop herself. She hated throwing up as it is, but with the problems it was a living hell._

 _"Chloe," Joey grabbed her hands, "you have to stop. You are beautiful and perfect just the way you are, okay? I love you, Tori loves you, Gia loves you and I'm sure as shit Popples loved you." He moved a hair out of her eyes. "Just be Chloe okay?"_

 _"Okay." Chloe sniffled. She opened the box and ate a nugget. It tasted so good, she had forgotten how good McDonald's was. She quickly devoured four more nuggets, completely forgetting about her diet. Joey watched her with a smile, he was happy she was eating. With a full mouth she asked, "hey, JJ, can we get more nuggets?"_

 _Joey laughed, "I love you CC."_

 _"I love you too, JJ."_

* * *

Wanda looked at Chloe, she was silently crying while hugging her knees to her chest. Though the tears were flowing faster the Niagara, but she was smiling. Chloe seemed content but upset at the same time. Wanda didn't know what to do, she should comfort her? Did she need to be comforted, after all it was a happy memory.

But why would that memory be happy? Chloe had talked about being forced to starve herself and purge. Why would any memory with something like that attached be her favorite? It didn't make any sense to Wanda.

"I do not understand, why is this your favorite memory?" Wanda blurted out, she wished she hadn't said anything and just bit her tongue. She shouldn't have questioned her friend. Were they even friends?

Chloe wiped some tears away, "because, it was before everything got bad. It was before the twinnies started teasing me more, before I met Brad, before I got sicker in the head, before JJ _died._ " Chloe sniffled and Wanda grabbed her hand.

Wanda couldn't imagine losing her brother forever. He was her rock. Those few agonizing hours were he was in surgery was more then enough time away from him. The two had never been separated that long, and when they were it was hell. When Wanda had nothing else, she had Pietro.

Wanda could tell the same went for Chloe and Joey. She could tell by the small glimpse she saw that they were each other's world. Just like Wanda and Pietro. She couldn't imagine how someone so vulnerable, could live without her other half. Wanda almost went insane at the thought of losing her brother, but Chloe had actually _lost_ her other half.

"I cannot begin to imagine what you are going through, I almost lost Pietro and it nearly killed me. I want you to know that I am here for you." Wanda was sincere.

Chloe smiled, "thank you." She wiped some tears away and looked at her phone for the time. "You know what, let's make some muffins. Baking helps me feel better, but first I'll do my make up." Wanda nodded; she knew that Chloe didn't want to talk about it anymore.

So Chloe began to do her makeup as Wanda watched. She marveled how Chloe could do such good makeup with such little effort. Chloe knew what she was doing, she had been forced into wearing makeup since the sixth grade. She didn't truly mind doing her make-up, in a way she felt as if she was becoming someone else completely. Chloe knew just how to blend and apply, she was elegant and graceful and it only took her a few minutes.

Soon the girls were in the kitchen, Wanda was watching as Chloe began sifting through the cabinets looking for the ingredients while throwing her long hair in a messy ponytail. One by one she pulled out the said ingredients and placed them on the counter then she preheated the oven.

Wanda bit her lip, she didn't know how to make muffins, or any other baked goods for that matter. Her mother never made them, money went to needs not wants like muffins. And being on the street then in Strucker's lab did not help with the matter. She and Pietro only knew how to heat up food, and not much else.

Chloe noticed her friend's discomfort, "I'm teaching you how to make my aunt Kelsey's muffins. If you ever meet her don't tell her I taught you; she owns a bakery and is afraid people will steal her recipes." She rolled her eyes dramatically then gave Wanda an equally dramatic look that made her smile.

Step by step, Chloe described how most people make them and how to make them "properly" (though it didn't matter since Wanda had no idea how to make them). Wanda was amazed at how Chloe knew the recipe by heart, a dash of this, a pinch of that, melt some chocolate and make a swirl. Soon the batter was done and Chloe told Wanda to taste it.

Wanda had never tasted batter as good as this. It was creamy and smooth in her mouth and down her throat. It was sweet, not to sweet though, just enough sweetness to satisfy you. She had trouble with sweetness, growing up poor meant things weren't that sweet. There was a hint of chocolate flavoring in it along with the chocolate chips. If she was given the chance Wanda would eat all the batter by herself.

"I know right," Chloe smirked. "When I'm done you can lick the bowl and the spoon, but I've seen you guys eat, one batch isn't going to cut it." So after she placed the first batch in the oven, she got carried away and started on another, and another after that. In total Chloe made four batches of her aunt's special muffins, and a special glaze for half of them (Wanda would have helped, but she didn't want to mess up and ruin them).

As Wanda ate the batter from the bowl and spoon, she and Chloe played a game like twenty questions. They were swapping stories, they gave each other a topic and tried to top each other and if they did they got a point. They were having a lot of fun and then Chloe's phone rang. It was Chloe's little sister, Tori, the caller ID said so. Chloe sighed nervously, "I'm scared, it's almost seven thirty here so that means it's almost four thirty back in California." Chloe sighed again and answered the phone, "hello?"

"Chloe!" A child's voice yelled. Wanda could hear it loud and clear despite not being right next to her. "I had an epiphany!"

"Tori, it's four thirty in the morning there you should be asleep, mom will kill you if she finds out you're talking to me. And, do you even know what epiphany means?" Chloe chided, partially crossing her arm over her chest.

"The meaning matters not, it's the thought that counts!" Tori got quieter and began to talk to Chloe.

After a few seconds Chloe face palmed and heavily sighed. "You called me, just to tell me that?" Chloe shook her head, "go to sleep, my love, you sound as high as your IQ." Chloe paused, "alright I love you, bye." She ended the call and put her head in her hands. "My genius, seven year old sister, just called me at tell me that while she randomly woke up she realized something. That since the people in the american colonies, were sort of outcasts in England, so you you could say they're the ' _All American Rejects_ '."

Wanda scrunched her face again, "I do not understand."

"It's a band I used to listen to," Chloe sighed and rubbed her temples. "She is going to be the death of me, I know it. Oh, just so you know in a little bit my cousin Gia is going to call. It's her birthday and I told her to wait until today to open her present. Oh god, she's going to yell in my ear too," Wanda rubbed her back and they went back to their game.

After a few minutes Steve and Natasha walked in together, since they had been in the gym together. "I made muffins, please have some, there are forty seven of them and 24 have a special glaze."

"Why only forty seven?" Steve asked as he took a muffin. He really wanted to eat healthier, but they looked and smelled so good and he didn't want to be rude to Chloe.

Chloe smiled at a blushing Wanda, "Wanda tested one to make sure it wasn't poisonous. And have you seen my uncle, I know he likes these."

Natasha sat down and said, "F.R.I.D.A.Y, can you tell Bruce to get his ass in here." She smirked and took a bite of her muffin. She chewed for a moment then stopped and her eyes widened. "Oh my god," she said with a mouthful. "Steve you're not going to like these, I'll take your muffin."

Chloe bit her lip thinking that Nat was serious and that she had screwed up her aunt's recipe. "Are they that bad?"

Nat looked at Chloe in a reassuring way, "no, these are the best muffins I've ever had. I just don't want anyone to eat them so I can eat them." Chloe gave a half smile, not sure if she was telling the truth. She had serious trust issues, like everyone the team, and couldn't tell for the life of her when people were kidding. She even had trouble telling if JJ was kidding and she knew him better then she knew herself.

A moment later Bruce and Tony walked in (Bruce wanted to see what Natasha wanted and Tony was curious). Bruce stopped when he saw the muffins, "are those-?"

Chloe turned toward him and nodded. "They probably aren't as good as aunt Kelsey's, but it is her recipe." Bruce took two muffins and placed one in front of Chloe. "It's okay I don't want an-" He gave her a look, "alright I'll eat half."

Bruce sat next to her and took a bite. "I need to call Kelsey and tell her I love her."

"Careful, don't want Natasha to hear," a voice chided. The group turned to see Sam and Rhodey standing there, smiling. The rest of the group, and Pietro who walked in, greeted the pair, while Chloe sat there awkwardly. She had no idea who these people were, but she decided if her uncle trusted them, she could give them the benefit of the doubt.

The two spotted Chloe sitting there and Sam asked, "who's this lovely young lady?" Chloe blushed and turned away. She hated it when people hit on her, especially strangers.

Bruce took a step closer and wrapped his arm around Chloe. "This," he said with a tone that only she knew as his annoyance, "is my niece Chloe."

" _That's_ your niece?" Both asked surprised. They both knew that Bruce had a family that he never talked about, but they never expected her to just drop in.

Bruce smiled trying- and failing- to hide his anger and protectiveness. "Choose your next words words carefully, because she's my favorite."

Chloe blushed even deeper and brought her hair in front of her face to hide it. She wasn't used to praise even when she was little and used to get it more from JJ, Bruce, and her grandfather. Her mother only praised Joey, and since her mother didn't praise her neither did her father. And when Tori came along she became the darling daughter that Chloe had strived so hard to be.

Chloe pushed the thought out of her head and she began to play with her hair. Then she realized she had put it up, or at least she thought she did. As the group mingled Chloe got up and walked to Wanda who was talking to Pietro. Her new friend might remember, to be fair Chloe had a selective memory.

Pietro stopped talking to his sister and smiled at her. He wanted her to know that he was not going to hurt her, he was a friend. Pietro had feeling that she did not like him, since they only contact they had she flinched at it. He wanted to change that; he kept telling himself that it was because he did not like when people disliked him. It wasn't because he liked her.

Chloe gave a light smile back and turned to Wanda, making Pietro frown slightly. "Hey, I put my hair up earlier right?" Wanda nodded and she slightly groaned. "Great, I'm running low on hair ties." She reached up her sleeve and pulled out a hair tie. She began to struggle to braid her hair with her fingers.

Pietro wanted to speak up and say he could braid her hair. He knew how, he learned on the streets how to take care of his sister. Hair was one of those things he picked up on. Pietro was a little self-conscious about it, most guys do not openly admit to knowing that sort of stuff. Wanda elbowed him and motioned to Chloe with her eyes as if to say go help her.

Just as Pietro was about to step up the three heard Bruce call, "Chloe." She walked over slowly to her uncle and stood in front of him. "Turn around." Chloe turned and Bruce took out the braid and began a new one.

The group gaped at Bruce for a moment, they never knew he could braid. And from what they could tell he was quite good. He was quick but didn't pull on her hair, like he knew what he was doing. He was gentle with her (not like like he ever wasn't with her).

Tony was the one who broke the silence, "um, you know how to braid?"

Bruce nodded, "I had three older sisters. When they were grounded my mom made them watch me, which me braiding their hair was their way of spending quality time. And then when my nieces were born they out numbered them so my father and I had to step in." Bruce shrugged, "my dad said it would impress people too."

"Consider us impressed," Natasha smirked.

He finished the braid and threw it over her shoulder, "you're good to go-" He paused, "is that a tattoo?" The group paused and looked at a blushing Chloe. There was no way that shy and innocent Chloe had a tattoo, right? She didn't seem like the type to do something so permanent to herself. Chloe was quiet, proper, and rarely spoke out of turn, it seemed highly unlikely to so something so, daring.

"Uh," Chloe bit her lip and looked up at her uncle. "Which one are you talking about?" Well, that answered that.

" _Your mother let you get a tattoo?"_ Bruce asked incredulously, turning Chloe to face him. He may not be that close with his sister, but he knew there was no way in heaven or hell she would let her daughter get one tattoo, let alone multiple.

All of the people in his family were old school, it was like they were trapped in the forties, though his father had gotten better. None of his sisters were allowed to move out until they got married, you couldn't sing, belch, wear a hat, or be shirtless at the table, his sisters weren't allowed to get jobs because their husbands were supposed to take care of them (he was there when his eldest sister decided to open a bakery and told the family, it wasn't pretty), the girls weren't allowed to have short hair, and he and the males of the family were supposed to take care of the females. Sometimes, Bruce felt as if they were stuck in an old sitcom like, _The Twilight Zone_ or _The Brady Bunch._ Bruce couldn't imagine her sister letting Chloe get a tattoo.

"Well," Chloe mumbled, playing with the end of her braid, "she knows _now._ Dad took JJ and I to get matching tattoos for our seventeenth birthday."

Bruce gave her a confused look, "your father, the ex-navy lieutenant, let you two get tattoos? I know you talked about getting them, but knew your parents were against it."

"Well, you know JJ, that boy can talk himself through a brick wall. He somehow convinced my dad to take us and somehow convinced me that mom wouldn't find out. My dad was on board since we were getting meaningful tattoos." Chloe looked really uncomfortable and probably wanted to hide away for awhile.

"What are they?" Tony asked, not sensing that she wanted to drop the subject. He was kind of oblivious to that sort of stuff. Everyone wanted to step up and say that Chloe was uncomfortable, but they were curious to see what kind of tattoos she had.

"Well," she moved her jacket shaw off her shoulder, "this one is for my grandfather." It was a simple gray anchor with rope a crossed it spelling the word Popples. It wasn't large or grand it was just simple.

"Popples?" Steve asked, he and no one in the room besides Chloe and Bruce knew what it meant.

"It's what they called my father," Bruce answered, reaching out to touch it. "Lacy couldn't pronounce Poppy, it came out Popples. It stuck ever since, all my nieces and nephews called him that."

Bruce was so touched, he never thought in a million years that Chloe would do something like that. He and his father were very close, as were he and Chloe. It killed Bruce when he was on the run and couldn't talk to either of them or Jamie. They were what kept him sane when his mom, siblings, or nieces and nephews were being annoying. He was so used to just walking toward the garage to his father's "cave" as they called it, or picking up the phone and calling little Chloe, or walking the ten minute walk to his favorite pizza place where Jamie worked. He was so used to them being there.

It had killed Bruce when he found out his father had died. He didn't look up his family, every time he tried the Other Guy tried to come out to 'help'. He had found out from his sister Bonnie when she called to tell him Chloe was coming to stay. Of course, Bonnie being Bonnie hadn't delivered the news the nicest, easiest way. _"Oh and Bruce? Dad's dead, he died almost five years ago. You didn't even come to the funeral, some favorite son you are."_

"And," Chloe continued, pulling her shaw back into place and pointing to the back of her neck, "I have this one." The one that Bruce originally saw was even simpler. It was a fancy black X with lines of different thickness running horizontally.

"I don't mean to be rude but, I don't get it," Steve spoke up, "is it for 'X marks the spot', or does it mean something different nowadays?"

Chloe turned to face him, "it's okay most people don't get it. My cousin Bobby on my dad's side has down syndrome, which means he has an extra chromosome. The kids at his school were making fun of him for it, so my three cousins, my siblings and I collectively decided that when we were able too, we would get an extra chromosome like him." Chloe looked down at the ground, waiting for everyone to make fun of her.

"That's actually really sweet Chloe," Bruce assured her putting an arm around her. He knew that she was uncomfortable; like himself she did not like the spotlight on her. They both were shy unlike the rest of their family who were loud.

After a moment of silence Tony asked, "so Chloe, are you ready for your first party with _The Avengers_?"

Chloe scrunched her face in confusion, "what party?" She didn't remember being invited to any party. She knew they were having a party tonight for the fourth of July, but she didn't think she was invited.

And truth be told? Chloe didn't want to go. She hated parties, but didn't want to be rude. Parties with her family meant that alcohol was involved, meaning secrets that should stay secrets were let out, words were said that shouldn't be said, yelling, and fighting. Of course, she went to a few parties in high school, the first JJ brought her and she met Brad. Then parties with Brad meaning she was forced to do things she didn't want. Her drinks were spiked, pills were taken, hands went where they shouldn't...

Chloe was pushed from that god awful thought when Tony continued. "The fourth of July/Capsicle's birthday party tonight. You _have_ to come."

Chloe shook her head, "no I couldn't. You guys have fun, parties aren't my thing. Besides, I don't even have a dress."

Tony waved his hand, "you're coming. Any family of Bruce's is our family. You, Witchy, and Nat can go shopping, have a girl's day. At least I _think_ that is what a girl's day entails, right?" Tony looked to the group and they all shrugged. "Great it's settled! You can use my card, have fun!" Tony walked off with Rhodey and Sam in tow.

"So," Nat looked back and forth between the girls, "we'll leave in about an hour. Okay?" Both girls nodded and then Nat left. Wanda soon followed suit, but Chloe walked up to Pietro.

His heart thudded in his chest, what was he supposed to say? Though Pietro acted like a ladies man, he didn't know how to talk to Chloe. She was different than most girls he went after, she was Chloe. She was different, better than most girls he talked to. Pietro was just used to wooing them and then leaving. But he didn't want to leave Chloe, he wanted to see what they could become.

God, what was wrong with him?

"Um," Chloe bit her lip and looked at the floor. "I need my razor back." He looked at her in confusion. "I need the blade back to shave." She looked uncomfortable, blushing like a madman.

"Oh, okay," he stuttered out. "I'll go get it and bring it back to Wanda's room." Chloe half smiled and the two went their separate ways.

Chloe could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she talked to Pietro and the rush of joy she got when looking at him. She knew this feeling, it meant that she was developing a crush on the Sokovian. This was bad, very bad. The last time she felt this was with Brad and look how that turned out. She wouldn't, couldn't, do that to herself again, or hurt Pietro. She knew she had to digest those butterflies and ignore the joy. She couldn't open her heart again, because when she did bad things happened.

Chloe never looked for trouble, trouble always found Chloe.

* * *

After many hours in many stores looking for dresses (and a store to get Wanda makeup), the two Avengers and Chloe had each found the perfect dress. The had decided to try and match a bit; Wanda picked out a red dress, Chloe a blue one, and Natasha a white one.

They thought they would look good, or 'smokin' hot' as Nat said in them and were currently at Starbucks deciding on how to do their hair. Chloe had thrown Wanda's in a french twist for now, and when she took it out it would be really wavy. Natasha decided to curl hers. Both Avengers decided to straighten Chloe's wavy/curly hair, to which Chloe scoffed and replied "good luck".

The girls were in deep conversation when they heard "Chloe?"

The three girls turned to see a boy standing there. He was on the shorter side, but his muscles distracted you from it. He had dark curly hair and equally dark curly eyes. He had a goatee and some scruff on his face. He was handsome, though now his face was filled with confusion.

"Geoff?" Chloe asked and he nodded. She jumped up and hugged him which surprised the two girls. She didn't touch people besides her uncle let alone hug them. Who was this guy? They didn't think she knew anyone in New York. "I never thought I see you again, It's so good to see you."

"Same here, I kind of figured your mom went through with her threat so I never texted you, so you wouldn't get in more trouble." He admitted and they pulled apart. "How are you?"

"Okay, and you," he shrugged. "Oh," Chloe turned and motioned to Wanda and Nat. "Geoff, this is Natasha and Wanda, Nat Wanda this is my friend Geoff, it's short for Geoffrey but since it's spelled the weird way we call him Geoff. Nat and Wanda work with my uncle and I'm staying with him." The two waved at her friend.

"How did you guys meet?" Nat asked, her wheels spinning. Chloe needed someone around she knew, and this Geoff was a perfect candidate. Since coming to the tower Chloe only talked to Bruce and Wanda, every once and awhile she would say something to someone else.

"We had theatre together then got married and had two kids." Geoff answered nonchalantly and Chloe smacked his arm lightly.

"Geoff convinced me to join the musical and we played husband and wife." Chloe clarified though she was blushing.

"You take the fun out of it," He pouted. Was Chloe _bantering_ with him? She never really talked at all and here she was joking with this Geoff. She was shy, so shy she didn't even joke with her uncle. Yet in walks this boy and here she is smiling at him. They must have been close, maybe even dated...

"I miss _The Addams Family_ days," Chloe admitted. "I would watch my copy of it, but my mom..." She trailed off.

"She ruined it didn't she" Chloe nodded. "I have my copy," Geoff swooped in, "you can borrow it. It's just sitting in my dorm. I would let you come over and watch it, but no girls allowed in our rooms."

Chloe smiled and was about to answer when Nat spoke up. "Why don't you come over and we all watch it?" Chloe's eyes widened at her friend. "I'm sure her uncle would love to meet you." She silently begged to whatever deity there was that he would say no.

"That sounds like a good idea," Geoff smiled then looked at his watch. "Look I have to go, summer classes, but I'll text you and we can set up a time. Your number still the same?" Chloe nodded. Geoff kissed her cheek, "it was nice seeing you." He turned to Nat and Wanda, "it was lovely meeting you." He kissed both of their hands.

Wanda blushed while Nat smirked, "that's really sweet."

Geoff smiled a goofy grin that could make any girl smile, "hey chivalry isn't dead, even if I'm gay." He said goodbye once more and hurried off. He went out the door and went right a few steps then stopped and turned around and jogged right.

"Well," Nat wiped off her shirt, "he seemed really sweet. As much as I would love to hear about him we have a party to get ready for." She and Wanda stood up while Chloe's heart dropped. Chloe really hated parties.


	6. Chapter 6

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually talks with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: suicidal thoughts, people telling you to commit suicide, domestic abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, rape, miscarriage, choking, character death, car accident, drunk driving, accusation of incest**_

 _ **Thank you TheDeathOfTheGoddess, abstract01**_ _ **18, Guest, and**_ ** _Mcduffie145_** _ **for reviewing.**_

 _ **I decided to add some Vision in this chapter because I realized it seems like I forgot about him. And another chapter that's over nine thousand words (that I totally didn't cry while writing part of Chloe's backstory).**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel, Guns and Ships from Hamilton, The Simpsons, Romeo and Juliet, You Are My Sunshine; only my OCs**_

* * *

Chloe, Nat, and Wanda were currently in Wanda's room getting ready. Nat was doing Chloe's hair while Chloe did Wanda's makeup. It was quite the sight, they seemed like a bunch of young girls getting ready to go out for the night. They didn't seem like an assassin, an experiment, and a girl who lost her place in the world. They looked happy and carefree as could be.

"Hey," Nat interrupted, "do either of you have a bigger clip?" Chloe's hair was thick, so Nat had to go in sections to straighten it. She now had to redo a certain part and needed a bigger clip to hold her hair back.

"Yeah," Chloe pointed to her suitcase, "there should be one in there." Nat got up and put the suitcase on her bed. "Look at that nose blend!" Chloe exclaimed making Wanda giggle.

Nat shuffled through her suitcase trying not to mess everything up. Not that there was much to mess up, most of Chloe's items were books. There were only three sets of clothes, or so she thought. As Nat rummaged through the suitcase she came across a plastic bag. The plastic bag was the only place she hadn't looked, so she opened it. There seemed to be a dress, a photo album, a ring, and a clip.

Natasha went to grab the clip bit it was tangled in the dress. The dress itself was very pretty. It was a sky blue with sparkles that would probably fall to Chloe's knees. It had arm straps that were to big to be spaghetti straps, but not thick enough to be sleeves. It was almost a skater dress and it would look beautiful on her.

Chloe turned, "did you find-" She stopped talking and stared at the dress. She dropped the make-up brush she was holding and brought her hands to her mouth.

"My bad," Nat began to fold the dress, "I didn't mean-"

"It's okay," Chloe assured, trying to hold back tears from her eyes. "I haven't looked at it in awhile." She got up and slowly walked toward Nat and the dress. She reached out and touched it gingerly. Slowly she took the dress from Nat and held it to her chest. "I'm sorry, my JJ got it for me. I would have worn it tonight, but I wouldn't, couldn't, I wore it to his funeral." She clung to the dress as a single tear dropped from her eye.

Nat swallowed uncomfortably, she didn't know what to say. She wasn't good with her emotions let alone another person's. The Red Room taught her to push them away; emotions always got in the way. She had been trained to ignore all those feelings and bottle them. There was one emotion that is the hardest to push away.

Love. Love was the strongest emotion. Everyone wanted to feel and/or be loved. You could tell by the look in Chloe's eyes right now that she cared for this JJ person. Whenever you looked in Chloe's eyes you could see all she wanted was to be loved. You could see the pain of being let down and pushed away time and time again.

"Do you want to see a picture of him?" Chloe asked. Nat could see the twinkle in her eye and she couldn't say no. She nodded and the younger girl pulled out the photo album and began to flip through it. "This is us," Chloe whispered as she handed Nat the album.

Nat looked at the picture. It was of Chloe and a boy, she presumed JJ, sitting on the hood of a car. Chloe looked so much younger here in a care free way. She was very uptight now but here she was making a silly face. Her left eye was squeezed shut and her tongue was sticking out to the side. Her hair was blown back by the wind and the natural sunlight was bouncing off the car. Chloe was sitting with one leg hanging off the hood and the other propped up while she was leaning on it.

Both were sitting at an angle facing each other. The other person was running a hand through his hair as he was what looked like laughing. He was very muscular, she noted. He was laying on his back while propping himself up with one arm. Even though he was laying back you could tell he was significantly taller then her. His feet were dangling off the hood; they both were bare foot.

They also looked like they had just gone swimming, their hair was wet and they were in bathing suits. Chloe wore a black and blue top that covered her stomach and a pair of denim shorts. JJ wore a plain black pair of swim trunks.

The pair looked so happy. It seemed as if they didn't have a care in the world, that they the thing that mattered was each other. The two seemed at peace, ignoring the world around them.

"You two make a cute couple," Nat said breaking the silence.

"Oh no," Chloe blushed, "JJ's my twin." She covered her slight smile with her hand at the look on Natasha's face. "It's okay, most people don't realize we're twins. We look nothing alike, and we have different personalities and interests. Plus we are closer than most brothers and sisters."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Nat apologized. Chloe waved her hand to signify she was fine. Nat realized that she seemed uncomfortable. "Let's finish getting ready," Chloe nodded at the suggestion, wiping her tears away.

* * *

"I have to admit, we do look hot." Nat looked at her two new friends as they marveled at their reflections in the mirror. They couldn't believe that a dress, some makeup and hair products could make them look this different. It was a good different after all, they did in fact look _hot._

Nat wore a simple white dress. It had 3/4 lace sleeves and fell about to her knees. The dress was slightly low cut, showing off a little cleavage, and hugged her in all the right places. It was simply yet, elegant, like her hair. Natasha's hair was curled in big diva curls that looked somehow natural on her. Her makeup was light, you could tell she had some on, but not how much she wore. She had blood red lips, light pink cheeks, her eyeliner showed off her eyes, and her smokey eyes were blue and gray.

Wanda looked just as pretty. She had a ruby red dress that had sleeves around her arms, and fell about an inch past her knees. Like Nat's dress it showed enough cleavage to keep a guy guessing and hugged her in all the right places. Her hair was better than Chloe had described it. After leaving it in a french twist for majority of the day it was nice and wavy. It looked like she had natural beach waves from staying in the ocean way too long. Her makeup accented her features, but not too much. Her lips matched the color of her dress, her blush was a tad bit darker then Nat's, her contour showed off her natural cheekbones, and her eyeliner made her green eyes stand out along with her natural smokey eye.

Chloe looked equally as pretty as the two. Her dress was a midnight blue that fell to her knees (it would have fallen higher up her thighs, but she was short). The dress had long sleeves that covered her scars, they made sure of that. She and Wanda had explained to Nat she had scratched her wrist and just didn't want people to ask questions, though Nat had a good feeling that wasn't the whole story. The dress was almost lacy, but not quite. Her hair, at the moment, was pin straight. Instead of falling slightly past her bum, it fell a little ways past her knees. Some was pulled back into a red ribbon, that somehow didn't seem like something a child would wear. Her makeup was flawless as usual; it hid what she didn't want you to see and showed you what she wanted to see. Her lips were a pinkish red, her blush was actually lighter than the other two girls but since she was so pale you couldn't tell, her eyeliner was a dark blue (but you could only tell if you looked into her eyes), and her eye-makeup was lighter colors.

Though Chloe didn't think she looked stunning. She thought her dress showed to much cleavage and hugged her a little too snug, especially in the stomach. To her dismay, Chloe didn't have a flat stomach, it was quite chubby. The kids at school or sometimes her cousins asked if she was pregnant. Granted it wasn't _that_ big, but people just liked to tease her. She missed the days when she could lay flat and her stomach would actually be flat. One of the most noticeable things was her giant scar on her leg from...

There was a knock at the door that made all three turn toward the door. Natasha walked to the door and opened it. Bruce and Pietro stood there, ready to escort the girls, like true gentlemen. Bruce's jaw dropped when he saw Nat, she looked to beautiful for him to form _any_ intelligible thoughts. She looked like a goddess walking the earth, no she looked better than that, she looked prefect.

"Close your mouth you'll catch flies," Nat smirked as he blushed. He didn't know what to do, he had never felt so strong romantic feelings. Sure he had crushes here and there, but what he felt for Natasha was, somewhat different.

"Sorry," he quickly apologized. "I don't know what to say to someone so beautiful." This made Nat smile. She stepped aside to let the two in. Pietro walked to his sister and of course complimented her, but in their native tongue. The way she looked reminded him of their mother when she would go on dates with their father. Just as he was about to say something when he heard Bruce say, "wow, Chloe, you look good."

Pietro turned, he couldn't believe he had forgotten she was there. She looked _breathtaking._ Everything about her look screamed sophisticated, yet elegant. Though she looked so amazing, her eyes told a different story. Her eyes showed anxiety and fear, but you could only tell if you looked real close.

As Chloe quietly talked to Bruce, Pietro's eyes left her eyes. They traveled a little farther down south, to her chest. Damn, she looked hot, no beautiful. He wondered how her body would feel pressed up against his. How-

"Careful," Natasha whispered in his ear making him jump. He didn't even notice her walk over, "if Bruce catches you staring at his niece, his _favorite_ niece that way, there will be no illusion where you can hide from his wrath." She warned. There was a scowl on her face that somehow remind him of a smirk.

Pietro blushed and Wanda hit him. "Please don't scare her away," she looked at him with pleading eyes that he couldn't say no to. "I like having a female friend." Pietro nodded, not just for his sister's sake, but because there was no way that Chloe would go for him. Why would a beautiful girl, go for an orphaned mutant who was once a villain?

"You guys ready?" Bruce asked looping Nat and Chloe's arms and Pietro did the same for Wanda and they began they're way to the party.

* * *

Chloe doesn't know how it happened, but one minute she she was talking with Wanda and the next she was the stand in bar tender. It wasn't intentional of course, she didn't walk into the party planning on serving drinks. She didn't even realize what she was doing, until she was in the middle of making a special drink and stopped and said, "wait, how did I get here?"

Nat walked up to get a drink, surprised to find Chloe behind the bar with Wanda and Pietro watching her. She looked at her in confusion, how, why? After a moment of thinks she said, "although I have many questions to ask you, I'll stick with the most prominent one. How do you know how to do that?"

Chloe blushed, "well, my mom is allergic to beer, so she makes things like _m_ _argaritas_ and _martinis._ I've seen her do so much, I guess I accidentally paid attention." It was partially true, she did learn from watching family members, but then as she got older they made her actually make drinks for them so they wouldn't have to get up. "What can I get you?" She asked and Natasha gave her her order.

Tony and Thor called Wanda and Pietro over leaving just Nat and Chloe at the bar. Although she thought Chloe didn't notice, she was looking at Bruce. She wished she could talk to him; their last conversation went well. But yet, they still weren't together. It was like they were dancing, just around each other.

"You like him." Nat whipped around to Chloe, unsure she heard her right. She wiped a glass, "my uncle I mean, I can tell." She poured the mixture from the shaker into Nat's glass. "Go for it."

Nat was a world class assassin, she was an Avenger. Being surprised wasn't in her vocabulary, yet here she stood marveling Chloe. "What?" Was all that came out.

Chloe sighed as she threw the towel over her shoulder, "I mean it's obvious you two like each other, don't let fear get in the way, go for it." Nat raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting this from Chloe. "I can tell by the way you two look at each other, that's the way my dad used to look at my mom." She shrugged as she handed Nat the drink.

"Used too?"

Chloe began to pick at her nails, "their relationship is," she paused and looked up, like she was searching for the word, "complicated. My dad used to love my mother, but after he was deployed last time, he wasn't the same. He was paranoid, didn't trust anyone, started believing things that weren't true, he just wasn't dad." She shook her head, "I know I don't sound to reassuring, but don't let anything stop you. I may not know everything that has happened to him, but uncle B deserves some happiness. And as my grandfather always said, 'don't be afraid to let love in, you'll be surprised at what can happen, but make sure that person is the one, your heart is fragile, your heart can only take so many breaks before it will stop working'." Chloe smiled at the memory of her grandfather. Nat stood to go talk to Bruce, "wait!" Chloe reached under the bar and pulled out a bottle of water and a sharpie. She wrote something on the bottle, "here give this to him, he'll know it's from me."

Natasha took the bottle cautiously, slightly concerned, but she took it nonetheless. She walked over to Bruce and handed him the water. He read the message and looked over at Chloe. He playfully glared and she gave a wide guilty smile. The two turned toward each other and began to talk. Chloe smiled, she was happy to see her uncle happy.

"Hello," Pietro sat down in front of her. He was in fact a little buzzed; normal liquor didn't touch him, but Asgardian mead was an entirely different story. It was much stronger and somehow gave him the confidence to talk to her. Well, he had the confidence, he just didn't want to risk messing anything up.

"Hi," Chloe blushed, "how are you?" She didn't think Pietro was drunk, he certainly didn't smell like any type of alcohol she'd come in contact with, and she had smelled many different types of alcohol in her lifetime.

"Well better since I'm talking to you." Pietro smiled making Chloe just about melt. Yet, she didn't realize his flirting was sincere. Too many times had guys flirted with her just to mess with her or get in her bed or just to talk to her cousins. She had walls that were a mile high, they were made to be unbreakable. She had worked so hard to build them so high. She swore she wouldn't let anybody else in, that she wouldn't let the walls crumble.

Then why were they collapsing so easily for him?

They talked for awhile, just about nothings or old memories. It was nice to both of them, no faking that everything was prefect. No more hiding around every corner, they talked like old friends. Chloe's bar-tending had long since forgotten, and for the second time that night she found herself somewhere else. Right next to Pietro.

A few times she had mentioned a boy named JJ. She lit up when she talked about him and her eyes sparkled. It brought sadness to Pietro, this 'JJ' must have been her boyfriend. The way she talked about him made it seem like she really cared for him. He pushed the thought of that predicament aside and listened to her stories.

Pietro smiled, then he saw Wanda motioning for him to come towards her. She looked slightly mad at him, he knew he was in trouble. He gulped and began to stand. "As much as I would love to stay and chat, my sister wants me. We will continue this conversation later, _moje slniečko_."

He started to walk away, but she grabbed his hand. "What does it mean?"

Pietro smirked, "you'll find out later." He winked and walked away.

Chloe smiled while blushing. Was he actually hitting on her? There was no way. She had seen some of the other party-goers eyeing him up. He was gorgeous, anyone could see that. He had hair that looked so soft and muscles. Plus that accent could drive anyone wild. Who was she? She was a pathetic pale girl who wasn't worth the time of day.

Her internal debate was noticed by someone, a certain super soldier noticed. He knew the look on Chloe's face, it was one that meant she was conflicted. She was belittling herself, Steve knew what that felt like. He knew she shouldn't be alone right now.

Before he asked her anything he decided to talk to Bruce. He walked over to the bar where he was getting himself and Nat a drink. "Hey Bruce?" Bruce turned to his friend, "hey uh," he rubbed the back of his head. "I noticed Chloe looked a little lonely and I was going to ask her to dance. I didn't want to just ask her and you think I was hitting on her. I'm not into her." Steve's eyes widened, "I mean she's pretty and all don't get me wrong, but-"

Bruce chuckled, he was quite honored that Steve would ask him before he did anything. "Go ahead." He understood where Steve was coming from, and it being anyone else, like Tony, he would say no. Steve was a gentleman, and he knew he wouldn't try anything on her. And she did look lonely.

Steve smiled and walked over her. "Excuse me Chloe," she jumped. "Oh sorry, I was wondering if you wanted to dance?"

Chloe blushed, she was not expecting that. "It's okay I get scared easily and yes I would like to dance with you." He offered her his hand and she took it. They walked to the dance floor, people began to notice. They positioned themselves and Steve's hand lightly touched her waist making her jump. Steve knitted his eyebrows. "Sorry, like I said I get scared easy, I was expecting it, but not expecting it at the same time." She blushed. _'Holy crap on a cracker, I'm dancing with Captain America! Man, if Gia could see me now she would be giving me tips on how to kiss, Julia would freak because he's Captain America'._

The two made small talk as they danced. They were actually enjoying themselves. Chloe had forgotten about the whole 'Pietro possibly flirting' scenario and Steve was just happy to not see such a pretty girl look so upset.

Pietro walked back in the room fresh from a scolding from his sister in their native tongue. He didn't _mean_ to flirt with Chloe (lie) and he didn't mean to 'attempt to steal her' as Wanda had said (double lie) and he certainly didn't mean to upset his sister so much her powers almost came out (truth).

Pietro stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Chloe dancing with Steve. His buzz was gone. That should have been _him_ dancing with her, holding her. It should have been _him_ making her smile. It shouldn't be the Captain.

But then again, why shouldn't it? He was Captain America for crying out loud, he was a super soldier! He had the brains, the beauty, and the brawn, somethings Pietro lacked. How did he stand a chance against Steve? Why did he have to be such a freak? Why did the world have to taunt him?

The song ended and the two parted. They lingered for a moment before separating completely, both blushing. Had he said something to her to make her blush? Why did the universe hate him? He wanted to dance with her, in fact he was going to ask her before his sister had called him over. Stupid, stupid, stupid Pietro.

* * *

The technical party had ended awhile ago. Most of the guest had left, leaving the Avengers, Sam, Rhoadey, Maria Hill, and Chloe sitting around. It was nice, they were just talking like old friends, and technically they were. They all were were good friends, they worked together frequently. All of them except for Chloe. She had her uncle sure, but she didn't really know anyone else besides Wanda. Her and Wanda were getting very close though.

Chloe was currently on her phone doing the most twenty-first century thing ever. She was talking to Gia on two different apps having two wildly different conversations. On her Instagram DM's they were talking about what came first the chicken or the egg and on Snapchat they were comparing people they knew to characters from musicals. She doesn't know how either conversation came up or why they were talking about it, but she wouldn't change it for the world.

Chloe and Gia were very close, they were like sisters or best friends. They hardly ever fought and Gia was one of the few people on her mom's side of the family to actual ask how she doing, even when she didn't see her. They both hated the fact that they lived on different sides of the country and only saw each other over summer break, Christmas, and of course every November when the family took a cruise. Until Chloe moved to Hawaii and then California the two saw each other every day, now they just texted, called, snapped, and facetimed.

Tony had noticed that she kept sticking her leg straight out, like it was hurting her. When she did this her face contorted into ease, like it had been hurting her. He decided to check on her. "Hey Blondie," Tony called to her but she didn't look up. She continued to type on her phone (she was sure the chicken came first thank you very much). "Shorty!" At this Chloe looked up, "oh you respond to shorty, but not Blondie?"

Chloe blushed, "uh, Blondie is Jamie's nickname, I usually get referred to as shorty. Every one but my sister is taller then me." Bruce looked at her and raised an eyebrow, he didn't think she was _that_ short. But this was his family he was talking about, they would make fun of anyone for anything. "Hey, I'm five foot," She raised a hand above her head and waved in around, motioning to everything around her, "there's a whole world up I don't even know about." She rolled her hair behind her ear, her blush was more profound.

"Your leg okay?" Tony seemed sincere which surprised everyone, including himself. Normally he didn't give two shits about stuff like that and here he was concerned about Chloe.

She blushed and turned her right leg inward. She had a large scar going from up higher on her dress down to her ankle. The scar itself was white, like it had been there for a while. It was also deep, you could see the the injury was deep.

"What the hell happened?!" Bruce slightly raised his voice making Chloe flinch. He noticed this and silently cursed himself for raising his voice. He knew Chloe hated yelling, it was the only way her parents communicated. He steadied his breathing before anyone could tell him to step out. He could feel 'The Other Guy' on alert, ready to help Bruce when he needed it. However he was not stepping away. This was _his_ Chloe, he had missed almost six years of her life, almost a third of it. He sure as shit wasn't walking away now.

Vision spoke up, trying to ease the tension. "It appears she was stabbed with something then it was brought down her leg."

Chloe blushed, "you're close. I was technically stabbed, but it wasn't brought down my leg. At the beginning of my sophomore year my dad was driving me home from ballet when a drunk driver hit us." She shivered at the memory. She can still smell the gasoline and smoke, the taste of blood in her mouth, the sound of tires screeching, the sight of the glass flying at her, and the feeling of the car door crushing her leg. "The door caved in on my leg when the driver hit. I shouldn't be able to stand, they don't know how I can walk. It scratched the bone, Ruptured skin, frayed some nerves, really damaged some muscle. I had a fifty percent chance of keeping my leg, and about ten percent chance of walking. I've been in physical therapy for the last three years."

What Chloe didn't tell them was when she came to she could hear her mother and father arguing over what they should do with her. Her mom said since it was Chloe's fault they should just leave her there while her dad argued that they should _at least_ pay for the costs since she was their daughter after all, but he didn't the government to come and mess with his body (her dad was paranoid after his last deployment, he was afraid the government would come and torture him for information). It wasn't like they didn't have the money, but her mom said there were so many other things they could spend that money on. Her brother was her savior and said that if they left her there, they could say goodbye to him to. " _Alright Joey,"_ her mother sighed, _"we'll put up with her for you."_

Sensing the discomfort he decided to change the subject, but keep it on her so she wouldn't be alone with her thoughts. "Who ya texting, your boyfriend?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows. Steve whacked him as Chloe tensed up. She looked like a deer in the headlights, she just looked _helpless._ All the bad memories came rushing to the front of her brain, all the lies, deceit, the pain. So much pain. In every way imaginable.

Without a second thought Chloe pushed those thoughts away before they got bad again. Her face returned to how it usually was, and she looked at Tony. She was so used to just pushing away her emotions it was like breathing. She doesn't know how she learned, she just did it. It was second nature.

Chloe looked down, away from everyone's eyes, they held concern. She knew these people could and would read her very well. It was their job, she didn't want them to see the pain in her eyes. "I'm actually texting my cousin Gia, besides I'm the _Duff."_ she whispered. She wished that she could run away, so far away. Chloe didn't want them to be concerned, she had heard some of their background stories. Wanda and Pietro were stuck in a building with a bomb then he almost died and Tony had a fake heart for a while for starters. They shouldn't be worried about her, she wouldn't even be here if it wasn't even for her uncle taking her in. Nothing had happened to her compared to what they went through everyday.

"What's the _Duff?"_ Steve asked. He wasn't used to the slang terms and phrases people used nowadays.

She blushed (something she did a lot), "it means I'm the Designated, Ugly, Fat Friend." Bruce raises his eyebrows, he knew someone had said this too her. He assured her that she wasn't that but deep down she 'knew' he was wrong.

The conversation was pulled from Chloe and they went back to what it was. She was grateful, she hated attention on her. She sat there on her phone 'arguing' with Gia as she replayed the night in her head. It was _odd,_ compared to all the other parties she had ever been too. Those parties were wild from start to finish, this was calmer. She didn't know that was a thing with Tony Stark.

Chloe thought to when Pietro called her something in another language. She had no idea what it meant. Though she was technically bilingual, she had no clue what he had said. She hoped it was a good thing, her other uncle calls her many offensive names in Italian, she did not want to be reminded of that.

Chloe turned to Wanda, "Hey Wanda?" Her friend turned to her to give Chloe her full attention. Wanda smiled at her, she knew Chloe was very anxious. "Your brother," she started and Wanda's smile slightly faltered. Of course her brother did something, when doesn't he? Chloe didn't seem to notice her slight annoyance and continued. "He called me something earlier, I wanted to know what it meant. It sounded like," she tried and failed to say the word.

Wanda tried not to smile at her friend, her attempt was funny. "You mean m _oje slniečko?"_ Chloe nodded. Wanda's face darkened, he just had to give her a nickname. "It means my sunshine."

Chloe froze once again, _oh god not that._ Of all the things in the world he called her _that._ The memories she had suppressed came back faster than she anticipated. Everything hurt, it hurt so damn bad. She could feel the physical pain from her emotions. The thought of him swam in her mind, like an Olympic swimmer. It was fast and hard, the pain. She couldn't do this, she couldn't go on.

Oh god what had Chloe done? She needed JJ so freaking bad right now. She needed him to help her through life, she didn't care if he babied her for the rest of her life. She needed him to tell her everything was okay, even though it wasn't. For her entire life, JJ was her rock, her anchor, she had always depended on him. He was her everything, he was her protector. For the longest time JJ was the only reason she went on and she needed him

 _Breathe Chloe, just for me._ JJ's voice was in her ear, telling her there was more to this. She remembered every single one of the things he had said to try to prevent her from ending it all. " _Don't kill yourself until you eat a whole chicken, "_ he'd say. " _Don't kill yourself until you finish your shampoo and conditioner at the same time. Don't kill yourself until you can rap Guns and Ships. Don't kill yourself until finally finish a tube of chapstick. Don't kill yourself until The Simpsons is_ finally _canceled. Don't kill yourself because I will keep coming up with reasons and I need you to hear every single one. Please just listen. It's a bad minute, hour, day not a bad life. I know I sound pointless, but you need to hear me. Think of all the birthday candle wishes you'll miss, all the shooting stars to wish upon, all of Tori's Tori moments, all the stupid things Donald Trump says that are so stupid you wonder how he's still alive. I know you Chloe, but please, when you think you're to far gone, remember you can always find your way to me."_

If he had known what would happen he would have handed her the blade. She knows that deep down. That nobody not even Joey could forgive her.

"Chloe?" Wanda asked, pulling her from her thoughts. She blinked and looked into her friends eyes. "Are you okay?" She nodded though they both knew she was lying once again. To Chloe, lying about her feelings came naturally. The talked for some time, like they had been doing. They talked about T.V shows and the series Chloe had recommended her to read. Wanda didn't know it, but she had probably saved Chloe's life. God only knew where her mind would have wandered if Wanda hadn't refocused her attention.

Chloe's phone beeped and she saw a text from Macy, she knew that couldn't be good. The rest of the twinnies, besides Gia, hadn't said two words to her since the funeral. She knew she shouldn't have opened it, but they were her _family._ They were probably just checking up on her albeit they were probably forced. She opened the message, she couldn't see the picture, but the message that went along with it said, "look at this- Love, Lia, Macy, Lacy, Ken, and Ben." She should have seen the sign there, they all wouldn't say love to her. But since Ken was involved they most likely wouldn't hurt her.

As she clicked open the picture a text from Gia came through saying "don't open the picture!" But it was too late, she opened the picture and felt her blood run cold. It was a picture of them last November on the cruise, she forgot where. It was all eight of the twinnies, standing from oldest to youngest. Her brother's eyes were x-ed out and his body had been scribbled out. Chloe herself now had drawn on devil horns, a tail, and a pitchfork. Next to it said " _anyone who knows a whore like Chloe, will end up dead."_

That was the final straw, Chloe muttered an excuse me and rushed outside. She stood at the balcony looking out to the city. _JJ would have loved this view._ She put a hand to her mouth and threw her phone on the ground. She didn't care that her phone probably cost more then everything in her suitcase right now.

God, how could she have been so stupid? Lia, Macy, Lacy, Ken, and Ben being nice to her? She must have really lost her mind. Sure she had expected something like that from them except from Ken. Ken usually never partook in teasing Chloe, he usually just said "come on guys, cut it out" or "she's still our cousin". How many times had she saved their hides from trouble? How many times had she stuck her neck out for them? Didn't they remember all the times they had fun? They were the best of friends growing up. They were still family.

What had she suspected? They had told her many times (behind her brother's back) that they only put up with her for Joeys sake. At the funeral Lia had said, "you're not a twinny any more, you need a twin to be one, and well you just put yours six feet under."

What had happened to them? What had happened to the children she grew up with? They played together, learned together, lived together. They fought the monsters under the bed and conquered every kingdom. They were the best of friends, their teachers in elementary school would purposely try and separate then so they would make friends with the other kids. They said that they needed to learn to not depend on each other, but Popples said that family sticks together. They did everything together; why couldn't they grieve together?

 _Because it's your fault Joey's dead._

Could she really blame them though? It was her fault, if the roles were reversed she would feel some sort of anger toward one of them. But Chloe would realize that the guilt and the hardship of living without their twin was punishment enough. But none of them were as close as the Schuyler twins were, none of them would probably even care enough to grieve their twin.

Well, that was a lie, sort of. Gia would probably not show it, but grieve on the inside for Lia. Ken would probably do the same for Ben. Lia and Ben would act upset for their twin. If Lacy or Macy died, the other would probably throw a party. Chloe hated thinking of her cousins this way, but it was true. How could you think positively of your family members if they told you that you should have died instead of your brother?

What if she did die? What if she just jumped off this balcony? It wouldn't bring JJ back but it would take her to him and Poppy. _"You can always find your way to me."_ JJ had said. Maybe she could-

"Chloe?" She looked up to see her uncle, Wanda, and Pietro standing on the balcony, the rest of the team stood by the door watching. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't even hear them come outside. They all looked at her concerned, why wouldn't they? She had just thrown her phone to the ground, was crying, and was using the rail to the balcony as grip while thinking of jumping over it. "Chloe," her uncle repeated. Bruce took a step forward and she took one back. "What's wrong? And don't you _dare_ lie to me." He had enough assertiveness in his voice to show he wasn't messing around, but not enough to scare her.

She couldn't lie? When it came to her feelings that's all Chloe knew how to do. It was like breathing to her. In her house, you don't talk about your feelings, it was only a weakness. You lied and said everything was okay even when it wasn't. All three of the Schuyler siblings learned early on not to talk about emotions, only to each other, even then it wasn't natural. JJ was the man of the house, even when their dad was there, he had two sisters, school, football, and possible scholarships to worry about, plus he was the golden boy and a Mama's Boy and could do no wrong. Tori was seven, she didn't have much to worry about, she was ahead in her already advanced school except for English where Chloe helped her, she got anything she wanted, she was Daddy's Little Girl. Chloe was a different story, her parents didn't see her for herself, they only saw the bad things about her. No matter what she did it wasn't enough, there was always room for improvement. She was a mess though, she felt bad enough for worrying her siblings. How could she be the favorite, she was suicidal at eleven.

Lying was what she was good at. Chloe lied the night after JJ's funeral, saying she just couldn't sleep and took the pills when really she tried to-. Oh god, she couldn't even go there. It was Tori who found her on the bathroom floor the next morning and promptly woke up Gia who was staying over to help ease the pain. It was Gia who woke her up and along with Tori who comforted her. It was Gia who tried to get Chloe's mom to get her help, then and there. But after "the stunt she pulled" at the funeral, she didn't even see Chloe as a daughter anymore. It was Gia who said she needed help.

Now she could get help, her uncle could help her. But that meant telling the truth. Telling people how she truly felt. For some reason JJ just seemed to know how she felt and what to say. Uncle B was the same way.

Chloe took a breath, "I'm tired Uncle B." A tear escaped, "I'm tired of this, lying, running away from my problems, being picture perfect, pretending that everything is okay. It's not, nothing is okay, it's not perfect. It's god awful, I don't know how much more I can take. I can't deal with more heartbreak." A sob escaped from her and she leaned on the rail for support. She thought her knees would buckle out from under her.

Pietro decided to help, he couldn't just stand there and watch as she was breaking down. "Think of that talk we had earlier, you were so happy-"

"Stop!" Chloe screamed. She ran a hand through her hair, "you're just like him. It's so scary, the way you treat Wanda, is the way JJ treated me."

"We remind you of you and your boyfriend?" Pietro asked confused. Wouldn't that be a good thing? That meant that 'JJ' took good care of Chloe, like he did Wanda. But did she find it weird that the Maximoff's acted closer than most siblings? Wanda hit him, not knowing that he didn't know.

"No, JJ was my older brother, my _twin_ brother." Chloe cleared the air. "He was my other half; he was protective, caring, loving, strong, and honest. But unlike you to Wanda, I didn't get him back. We came into this world together and never in a million years did I think we'd die apart. We were always together, the family used to joke that we were conjoined twins. Wherever he went I followed and vice versa. We moved to Hawaii after my was wounded in combat, they transferred him there then we moved to California. Until Tori was born, it was just us. Dad was deployed and lord knows where my mom was. He was my protector, not my father. Then-"

"Chloe-" Bruce started.

"No," she put a hand up, "nobody has heard _my side_ of the story. Because all I could say after the fact was 'Brad killed Joey' Everyone just assumed or went off what other people said. The police said it wasn't my fault that JJ is dead, but like our family said it is, it truly is. Nobody knows. It's time somebody heard what really happened. The end of the summer before junior year, my brother decided that it would be a good idea to celebrate me getting out of the hospital and walking again. He took me to a party, said some of his football buddies would be there, and this kid, Brad Dixon, my brother took his spot as quarterback. I really think he just wanted to make sure that there were no hard feelings because JJ destroyed his records. So me and my brother went, it was a wild party, I go to school with a bunch of entitled rich kids, of course it was. I stayed with my brother, until some girls dragged him off. I wasn't used to walking around so much on my leg, the accident was only ten months prior. Brad somehow noticed this and took me to the nearest seat and sat with me until my brother found us. We talked for awhile, exchanged numbers. It was nice, he didn't seem fake."

Chloe hadn't realized it but her uncle was creeping toward her, trying to comfort her. "To thank him for sitting with me we had him over for dinner in the beginning of September, where he formally asked me on a date. Then we were dating and everything was perfect. Then about a month and a half in was the first time Brad put his hands on me. He wanted to go back to his place, he had drinks back there for us, I told him I had to go home, he said that he had waited long enough and that we should have a 'real' date night, I told him I was waiting until marriage, and then he punched me in the stomach. He apologized, said he didn't mean it and that he loved me. I didn't care he hit me or told me I was worthless, Brad said he loved me. Someone actually cared, so of course I forgave him. And the time after that, and the time after that. Another month and half later, he stole my virginity in the bed of his pick up. But I didn't care, he told me he loved me." It was true nothing else mattered to her as long as he loved her.

Bruce stood next to her and wrapped an arm around her. "Then Brad started taking me to parties, spiking my drinks, forcing me to take pills, letting him and his friends use me. The whole time nobody knew the truth, my brother had suspicions of course, but for the first time in my life I completely lied straight to my brother's face. My parents were telling me that we were so good together and that he would take care of me. Then I realized in February I was late." Chloe began to pick at her nails. "I did the math, I knew it could only be Brad's. And I was happy, I thought that me being pregnant would stop him from hurting me anymore. JJ and I spent the day together, we were at the mall, when I felt it. I've always had bad menstrual cramps, but this was worse. This was unbearable, I told my brother something was wrong and he rushed me to the hospital. I never complain about the pain I'm in, I just don't. I think he knew deep down what was really going on. No matter how fast he drove or how careful he was, there was nothing he could do. The baby was long gone. I begged him and the nurses not to tell anyone and for some reason they didn't. My mom threw a fit, that I was smart enough not to get food poisoning, which is what we told her happened. I was grounded and JJ was to watch me, they had a dinner to go to." Chloe crossed her arms in what seemed like almost annoyance.

"I just knew," Chloe continued, "that Brad would understand. Or at least I thought I knew. So why JJ was in the shower I snuck out to meet Brad, now I wish JJ would've gone through with his threat and tied me to the bed. He knew deep down that something was wrong, that I made it clear that I was saving myself, that I wouldn't risk teen pregnancy and my mother's wrath for sex. So I met up with Brad and told him the truth. He said I shouldn't have lied about 'aborting my brother's baby', he said he saw the looks my brother gave him. That I _had_ to be sleeping with Joey and that our relationship was my cover story. I swore up and down that what he said wasn't true, there was no way I'd _sleep with my brother._ He didn't care he took me somewhere, an abandoned warehouse, duct taped me to a chair, put a phone to my ear and said to tell him to come there. He said if i didn't he'd kill Tori and everything he did to me he'd do to her and Gia. I went along with it, I thought JJ could take him." Chloe furiously wiped tears away. "JJ may have been captain of the football team and could lift almost three times his weight, but he was nothing against a metal baseball bat. I remember sitting there, praying that he wouldn't but would wake up, that JJ would never have to deal with Brad's wrath. I pleaded with Brad, 'you can beat my soul, take my life away, beat me, hurt, kill me, but for the love of god _don't touch him._ He slapped me, that was what woke JJ up. I thought seeing JJ, my protector, lying there, unconscious with blood dripping down him would hurt the worst. I was so wrong."

Chloe took a breath and continued, "he made JJ watch as he violated me. It hurt worse then any other time because my body was reconstructing from my previous debacle, but what made it worse was that my brother was screaming for him to stop. _He cried._ I caused him so much pain, he was crying. When he was finished he told us that the only reason he was with me was because he wanted something of Joey's since he took Brad's records. That it was all a lie and he never loved me. Then he made me watch as he choked JJ to death. Then he left us there, so we could 'our own twisted version of Romeo and Juliet'. I just sat there hoping, wishing, praying to someone, that he would wake up. I didn't care if I died instead or if he hated me, he deserved to live. He was only _seventeen_. He had a life ahead of him, college, football, he should have found a girl to love, got married, had kids, then grandkids. He should have lived until he was old and should have died _happy."_

"Somebody had seen Brad leave and had called 9-1-1. They came and untied me. They tried to take me to the ambulance, but I wouldn't leave JJ. I just held him in my arms, one last time, and said 'Joey James Schuyler, you were taken away to early, and it's all my fault'. And to say goodbye I sang the song we always sang to each other. _'You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey, you'll never know dear ho much I love you, please don't take my sunshine way'."_ At this she finally let out a gut wrenching sob and cried into her uncle's arms.

Nobody knew what to say, what could you say to something like that? Fragile Chloe had watched her brother die right in front of her. Nobody could fathom such an event to happen to someone. They all wanted to rush up and hug her, to tell her that it would get better.

But for now that was Bruce's job.

"Oh Chloe," he said stroking her hair. "I had no idea, if I had known I would have done something." Chloe bit back a _'what could you have done'_ , but didn't for her uncle's sake. "I know you were hurting but I had no idea. We'll talk more after you get some sleep." The started to walk off, but Pietro blocked the door. "Move Pietro." Bruce all but growled.

Wanda was about to join in when he sternly demanded. "I need your razor back." Chloe shook her head, almost telling him no. She needed the comfort after all that, she need grounding. The pain the razor brought made her focus on all the pain she had caused.

"What are you talking about?" Bruce looked confused, what did Pietro know that he didn't? Chloe was his niece, and for all Bruce knew she hadn't said two words to him (and he'd like to keep it that way). Pietro didn't know jack shit about Chloe, right?

As an answer Chloe rolled up her sleeves showing her scars to her uncle. The second oldest ones were the scars Pietro had found her making, most of the remaining scars were fading and/or healing. The two newest scars were from yesterday, in her sleep. "These last two were an accident, I swear on Poppy's grave. That's where the binds were when," she paused" and in my sleep I scratch at them to get rid of the tape. You can ask Wanda she cleaned them." Chloe hadn't meant to throw Wanda under the bus, but she wanted to prove that she didn't harm herself on purpose.

Wanda nodded. "It is true, though at the time I did not know why, when I woke up, she had already broken the skin. I stopped her from damaging herself more and I clean them to make sure the would not infect. I thought it was just a bad nightmare, I swear, if I had known I-"

"I know," Bruce said. He could see that Wanda was trying to make amends for the past, at least she was trying unlike her brother.

"Uncle B, I really want to go to bed," Chloe spoke up. She looked ready to keel over and Bruce felt the urge to help her. So bidding everyone goodnight the two went off to Chloe's new room so Chloe could hopefully get some sleep. Once she had changed she crawled into bed and Bruce was about to leave. "Please stay, I don't want to be alone." Bruce smiled and joined his niece, like when she used to have nightmares.

And for the first time in a long time, they slept soundly. And although he wasn't thrilled with either of them dying, he was happy that Joey and his father had died heroes.

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 **Translations:**

 **Moje slniečko- My sunshine**

 _ **Read and review please!**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually "talks" with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: fighting, threatening, cursing (a LOT of it), accusation of incest, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, accidentally getting high, fluff (I figured after that bombshell you guys deserved some fluff), Bruce and Chloe as young tater tots/sqibbies (young children), bonding moments, Bruce and Natasha moments, a special guest**_

 _ **Thank you TheDeathOfTheGoddess,**_ ** _Mcduff ie145 _**_**for reviewing.**_

 _ **I decided to add some Vision in this chapter because I realized it seems like I forgot about him. Also I made a mistake in the last chapter, though Chloe started dating her ex her junior year, her pregnancy didn't happen until the February of her senior year. The scene where her cousin Ben 'explains' why he is an asshole is actually something my friend said.**_

 _ **And guys, this chapter is almost sixteen thousand words! I'm on a roll!**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel, or Hey Arnold!, Victoria's Secret, Percy Jackson, Lord Of The Flies, Romeo and Juliet, Gremlins, South Park, 1984, It, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Ring franchise, Silence of the Lambs, and Courage the Cowardly Dog, Toy Story, Icarly, Anastasia, 'Uncle Ben's Pancake House' in WildWood (it's a real place) Mack's, and Curly's fries, La Bamba by Ritchie Valens, Girl on Fire; only my OCs**_

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Pietro had done fucked up, big time. How could he have been so stupid? How could he not tell Bruce that his niece was self-harming? Just so he could talk to her? What the _hell_ was he thinking? She could have seriously hurt herself, and what he didn't tell anyone just so he could tell himself that he knew something about her that Bruce didn't? He had risked Chloe's mental well being, her life, for a chance with her? What kind of man, no he couldn't call himself a man after that, person would do that to someone? Put himself before someone he had just met, so he could have a chance with her. Win her heart because he was selfish. Isn't that what her ex Brad had done?

Pietro had done some things in his life that he wasn't proud of, but this was the 'icing on the cake' as he heard said. He had helped Ultron, stole, lied, flirted for no reason, worked with Ultron, cheated, signed himself up to let crazy scientists experiment on him and his sister, worked with Ultron, almost let himself die on multiple occasions (though not all were for bad things), sided with Ultron, and did he mention the whole _'working with Ultron'_ thing? No, okay, well he did. But letting Chloe walk around a tower where she had easy access to weapons that that kill her with ease, nope, that was the worst.

She could have died and he just kept that information to himself. Though he did make sure Chloe didn't harm herself, it still wasn't his proudest moment. Pietro couldn't believe his stupidity. What if she just said she was fine and was lying? What if she had gotten so low she wanted to-. No he couldn't think about Chloe like that, she seemed to scared to do something so drastic, but she had gotten two tattoos which was very permanent, but then again he didn't know her.

Pietro had no idea at what went on in Chloe's life, he had thought she had come from a loving family who had adored her. He thought by the way she presented her life before they had met was a wonderful time, everyone got along and loved each other. But as she had said that her family had told her it was her fault that her brother was dead. Her and Bruce's _family._ How could someone say something like that about their blood? By what was said, it seemed like none of what had happened was remotely Chloe's fault, it was all her ex Brad's fault. How could she have known, she was clouded by love.

Chloe was with a man who had broken her heart, he was only with her to get even with her brother for breaking his football records. _Heartbreak_ for _football records_. Can someone please explain the logic behind that, because Pietro sure as shit didn't understand. How could you break someone's heart, lie to them, put your hands on them, rape them, threaten their family, accuse someone of incest, and kill their brother for a couple of measly football records?

Damn Americans and their pride.

As the rest of the Avengers glared at Pietro he was scolding himself. He couldn't blame the team for hating him, if the roles were reversed, he would be too. To the rest of the team Chloe was like a cousin, niece, or sister. She wasn't Bruce's niece, she was _their_ niece, the team was a family. Anyone who one of them loved, they loved, Chloe was a prime example.

Wanda sighed, "I will not scold you, since I did earlier, and I can hear your thoughts, they are doing for me. But know this if you _ever_ do something like this again, I will hurt you." She crossed her arms and stalked off. Wanda was pissed at her brother. Why-? How-? You know what, she didn't want to know.

Pietro hung his head and walked off to bed, without bothering to say goodnight. The Avengers were kind of glad he didn't because one word and they might go off. It was a good thing they didn't poke the bear, or bears.

* * *

The next morning Chloe slept soundly, it was the first time in awhile she had done so. She had the same nightmare every night, JJ's final moments. They replayed like a movie reel that was in bedded in her conscious at all times. Though during this sleep, she had no dreams.

The rest of the Avengers were sitting at the table eating. After a made a phone call to some one he knew could help, Bruce had F.R.I.D.A.Y know to tell him if Chloe woke or was having signs of nightmares. He was worried about his niece and didn't want to leave her, but he had to eat (plus it would be weird if she woke up and he was laid there awake). Nobody spoke, the tension was thicker than pea soup.

Bruce was internally struggling to keep 'The Other Guy' from coming out and ripping Pietro from limb to limb ('The Other Guy' was also part of the reason he had left Chloe, he didn't want her to see him). What Pietro did was wrong which nobody, not even Pietro, disagreed with. But the little shit hadn't apologized yet? That was eating at Bruce far more than he anticipated. Suddenly Bruce couldn't take it and slammed his fork down creating a dent in the table. "What the hell man?" He glared at Pietro, "first you keep something like that from me and now you don't even apologize?!" He gripped the table so hard he made more indents.

"I was waiting!" Pietro defended himself trying, but failing, to not make Bruce angry.

"For what an invitation?" Bruce growled. He couldn't believe the nerve of this kid, first he did _that_ and now he was waiting to apologize? Did this kid have a death wish?

"I was waiting until you calmed a little so 'The Other Guy' wouldn't come out." Pietro said in an almost accusatory tone that fueled Bruce's anger.

"Well since you know so much that you feel the need to not tell me about my niece hurting herself I guess it's okay." Bruce snarled.

Pietro knew he shouldn't be arguing with a man with break taking anger management skills he couldn't help himself. "She asked me not to tell you!"

Bruce wasn't at all surprised with that, he had kind of figured she had asked that. Chloe had a tendency to not tell people what she feeling, he did it too. Luckily for Bruce only his mother enforced that and he wasn't that close with her. Chloe on the other hand had Bruce's mom who was her grandmother, her mother Bonnie who was a carbon copy of her mother and a war-vet father who had severe P.T.S.D.

Bruce scoffed, "yeah and if Wanda was Chloe and she was hurting herself and asked me not to tell you would you be mad if I kept that from you?" He had a point there.

Pietro ran a hand through his hair. "Look, what I did was, is, wrong. I should not have kept something like that from you and I apologize. I have done many things wrong and I was trying to fix it by helping Chloe." He admitted.

"So know you're using my niece to help yourself feel better." Bruce practically yelled. He could feel himself getting 'green around the gills' and decided to go calm down. Not a minute after Natasha followed.

Everyone sat there trying to relax after what they just saw. They were worried there would be a code green but thankfully Bruce had removed himself before that could happen. "Damn," Tony broke the silence, "you made Bruce so angry you dented my table."

* * *

Nat found Bruce in his lab, he sat at a table. She just stood there waiting for him to talk. She couldn't imagine what was going through his head at the moment. He had lost a nephew and most likely didn't know. He mostly likely didn't know about the relationship Chloe went through. He had said he missed almost six years of her life. And since she had been here she had been extremely depressed, enough to hurt herself and a guy he barely trusted knew but didn't tell him.

"She watched her brother die. She lost him, they were so close, kind of like the Maximoff twins. I knew she was struggling at eleven, Joey called me in a panic, saying that he had accidentally found a journal where she was writing suicide notes. _She was writing suicide notes at eleven!_ You know what I was doing at eleven? I was learning how to 'pop a wheelie' on my bike while my eyes were closed, I was trying to figure out what happened to Arnold's parents and I still don't know. So I made a deal with myself, I would try and be successful so Chloe, Joey, and Tori they could move in with me. I would take care of them. Chloe's mom is not made to be a good mother. Bonnie would," Bruce paused, he could go on a whole rant about his sister.

"The point is," he continued, "I tried to push myself to set an example for not just them but for all my nieces and nephews. Bonnie learned everything she knew from my mom and while my dad," he paused so he wouldn't cry and Nat walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "While he was a good man and my role model, he had trouble working. Both my parents hid their similar health issues, but my mom's were worse so he worked. Plus he believed the man should take care of the family. He worked a lot, at one point he had five children to feed and bills to pay. I mean we had money from my grandfather but my dad refused to use it, said he could take care of his own family. Then he retired with a loan from a friend because he-, it's a long story. But he retired when my siblings all moved out to spend time with me and his future grandchildren."

Bruce put a hand on Natasha's hand on his shoulder. "I wanted to do that but not after I worked so hard it hurt me. Guess over working yourself is a family thing," he chuckled a little. "But he was there, he was there for almost everyone of me and my nieces and nephews milestones. He was thrilled when I graduated two years early and I know if I had properly graduated college he would have been there. I was the only one of my siblings to go to college, he said I made up for it, they all got married and had kids. My point is when things got tough he was there, for all of us, and I _know_ if he was still alive he'd be there for his favorite grandchild. My dad wouldn't have missed it for the world. Chloe went through so much and I didn't have the courage to find her, I was to scared of 'The Other Guy' scaring her off. I was more afraid of emotional hurt than physically hurting her. I could have been there, I could have helped her. What would have happened if I was there?" This was the part where tears threatened to spill.

Natasha embraced him, she knew that Bruce was in a bad place right now. Though she didn't know how to deal with emotions, she knew enough that he needed a hug. Nat understood he was hurting, he had learned some unpleasant news in the last 24 hours and hadn't had time to process it. He was so busy comforting Chloe that he hadn't had the time to comfort himself. Nat knew that it was in Bruce's nature to care for others besides himself, he needed to know that he was cared for too.

"You know what?" Nat tucked a piece of hair behind his ear, "last night, I saw how much Chloe cared for you." Bruce look up at her in confusion, "she saw me looking at you and told me to 'go for it' and 'don't let fear stop you', those were her words." Bruce smiled fondly. "She talked about your father," this made Bruce look into her eyes, "she told me he used to say 'don't be afraid to let love in, you'll be surprised at what can happen, but'-"

"Make sure that person is the one, your heart is fragile, your heart can only take so many breaks before it will stop working'." Bruce finished smiling. "He used to tell us that all the time. Dad was good for that stuff." He chuckled.

"What I'm trying to say," Natasha continued, "is don't let fear stop you. I understand you are hurting and she is too. And while you help her help yourself. I know you feel the need to help her and I'm stopping you or saying it's a bad thing, but you need to help yourself along the way."

Bruce stood and the two hugged. They lingered for a moment and then pulled apart. Their arms were still wrapped around each other as they looked into each other's eyes. They leaned back in, but not for a hug.

Bruce seemed to instantly remember how Natasha's lips felt against his as they touched. The were soft and warm and tasted like cherries. Holding her, kissing her felt, _right._ It felt like his whole life was meant for this. That this was what he was made for, to be with her. He could only imagine what Jamie would say if he was here, he'd never hear the end of it. _'Man, you kiss her willingly, but on New Year's Eve you won't kiss me'._ He pushed the thought of his childhood best friend and decided to find him later. Bruce focused on the now, something he hadn't done in awhile.

* * *

The next morning Chloe woke up bright and early. She would have kept sleeping but she was a) hungry, b) cramping from her position, and c) had to go to the bathroom very badly. So after relieving her bladder, taking a 'quick' shower, throwing her hair into a messy bun (after sixteen tries), and putting on makeup she ventured to the kitchen to get some food. Though she hoped the team wouldn't be there, but everyone besides her uncle was there. She was embarrassed after her rant, she should have told Bruce in private, but she needed to get it out. Now the Avengers knew what she did.

The team all greeted Chloe as she got a bowl and made herself cereal. She just gave a small 'good morning' and continued making her breakfast. She sat next to Wanda but before she ate she spoke up. "Uh, Mr. Stark?"

"Please call me Tony, Mr. Stark was my father." He said, Tony was trying to make her comfortable as possible.

"I figured since I am staying here, I should help out. I'm not good at a lot, but I can cook." Chloe offered. It was true, it was a rule in her family that if you stayed at someone's house (or in this case tower) you did everything you could to help out cleaned, cooked, did your own laundry, stuff like that. Since most things were done by the staff, that left cooking. Luckily, Chloe did most of the cooking at home, and in her opinion she wasn't half bad. "It's the least I can do."

She looked so sincere that Tony didn't want to say no. He didn't want to see the girl upset, but he didn't want her to think she was here just to cook. Then again having some home cooked meals would be nice, and if she could cook as well as she could bake he might never let her leave. "I guess you can do that sometimes." He finally answered, making Chloe smile as she thanked him. "Oh and your uncle will be back, he said he had to pick something up."

Chloe nodded and began to eat her breakfast. The team talked amongst themselves for some time when Bruce walked in smiling. Bruce smiling was odd enough, but he had a girl with him. She looked to be about Chloe's age, but looked nothing like her. This girl was as tall as Bruce at around 5'9 and was very skinny. She was pretty; she had long dark brown hair with a blonde ombre and lighter highlights, big brown eyes. She was tan, she looked like she just walked out of a tanning salon. She was pretty, she looked like she could be a _Victoria's Secret_ model.

Bruce pointed to Chloe and the girl gave him a hand signal. She put the tip of her pointer finger to her thumb held the other three fingers up as an 'okay' hand motion. She walked toward Chloe and gave the Avengers a finger to the lips as a 'stay quiet' motion. She quietly walked up behind an oblivious Chloe while smirking. They were about to say something to warn her when the girl quickly put her hands on Chloe's shoulders and yelled "boo" very loudly.

Chloe yelped and her spoon went flying up in the air and landed on her head. She groaned to which the girl said, "sorry about that, didn't mean to scare you that bad, Wise Girl." The girl giggled.

"Seaweed Brain!" Chloe exclaimed jumping up to hug her. Nobody besides Wanda knew what those nicknames meant, and she was laughing. Chloe had informed for that her cousin was Seaweed Brain and she was Wise Girl, though the characters in the Percy Jackson universe were dating they still called each other that since they both acted so similarly to the said characters.

"I missed you Gia." Chloe whispered. This was the Gia that the team had been hearing about, they finally had a face to a name. The two girls pulled away and smiled at each other. "Guys, this is my cousin Gia." Chloe introduced each of the Avengers and Gia waved. "Although I'm very glad to see you, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked.

"Well, Bruce explained you were having some trouble and thought you could use some help. So for the next six days you are stuck with me." Gia explained. "Plus, I've never been to New York." Gia smiled making Chloe grin. She sat next to Chloe and stole her bowl of cereal and began to eat it. Chloe returned to her seat and Bruce took a seat on the other side of her. She turned to the team, "I apologize now for anything I may say in the future. My filter broke a long time ago, and I don't mean to seem mean or rude, I just say whatever comes to mind."

"So how old are you?" Steve asked trying to get to know her.

"As of two days ago me and Li-Li are officially eighteen." Gia smiled. And she pointed the spoon she was using at the team and moved it to each of them as she spoke, "and if you ever meet her, _please_ call her Li-Li, she hates it." Gia smirked and continued to eat what was once Chloe's cereal.

"Speaking of your sister, how's she doing?" Bruce asked. He didn't know about how any of his family was doing since they didn't talk to him or Chloe anymore.

Gia shrugged, "don't know, don't care, I haven't spoken directly to her since the day before Julia's birthday. Unless you count our streak, but I send the same message to everyone." With this she continued to eat nonchalantly.

"What happened this time? Must have been bad, that was in the end March, it's July." Chloe asked. She knew Gia and her twin hardly ever got along, it was weirder when they did. They fought constantly about the tiniest of things (and Gia almost always won). They were stereotypical siblings who hated each other. Gia and Lia got along as often as her and Joey fought, which was saying something.

"Well," Gia began, setting down her spoon, "she started it, as per usual. Well, we were home alone and I was going out. I was going to hang with my now boyfriend, but I didn't want to leave and not tell my parents. I texted them and they didn't respond, so I decided to tell my sister in case they came home and asked. So I go into the T.V room and tell her I'm going out. She says 'have fun being a puttana to your boy toy'. Puttana means whore in Italian for those of you who don't know. So I said 'can't I'm to busying being one to yours', and we got into a fist fight. I would have won if Ken and Ben hadn't jumped the fence and broke us up, thank you very much." Gia shrugged and continued to eat. "You know just another day in the Duffy household. Speaking of my sister being a bitch, what exactly did she send to you?" Gia turned to Chloe as she put her head down blushing.

"It's nothing," Chloe tried to reassure, but Gia knew better. She knew her sister was the ringleader when it came to teasing Chloe.

"And Macy is a virgin." Gia rolled her eyes and Chloe looked at her with a confused look. The teams eyes were bugging out, wasn't Macy their cousin? Why would she say something like that about their cousin? "What? I thought we were both lying. Seriously what did they say exactly, because they only gave me vague answers." Chloe pulled out her phone and pulled up the app. She handed it to Gia and she clicked on something. She was silent for a minute before she gripped the table. "They so did not." Gia said through gritted teeth. "Imma kill 'em when I get back to Jersey."

"No Gia, don't sink down to their level." Chloe warned putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You're right, I'm going right past it, we're going straight to homicide." Gia got up and showed the picture to Bruce who became equally as upset. "I can't believe my sister; after all you went through and does that?! God, I hate being related to her." Gia plopped herself down and crossed her arms.

She groaned and stood up to get a drink. After her second try of finding the cabinet she got a glass and poured herself a glass of milk. After she put the milk away she turned back and looked at the group. She smiled while she pointed to Pietro and wiggled her finger between him and Chloe. She said something that nobody in the group could understand. Chloe was profusely blushing while face palming and mumbled something back, presumably in the same language. "Gia you can't just say something like that out loud!" Chloe scolded in English and Pietro shifted uncomfortably. They must have been talking about how he didn't tell anyone she was self-harming.

"Why not, it's not like he knows what I'm saying!" Gia put her one arm that wasn't holding the glass in the air.

Tony put a finger up, "Bruce decipher please."

Bruce shook his head. "I have no idea what they're saying. When they were eight they came up with Twinspeak, it's their own language. I've been trying to figure it out for years. They accidentally got locked in the basement for a couple of hours and I swear they made their own little society with a language and all."

"Well it was either that or _Lord Of The Flies._ " Chloe said, remembering that. She had been scared so they made it into a game where they made their own world. Her brother was the sheriff, Ken was the scientist/teacher, Ben was the town thief, Macy was the tailor, Lacy was the builder, Gia was the mayor, Lia was the store clerk, and Chloe was the medic. They had laws, a language, and everything. Soon they had forgotten that they were locked in their grandparents basement and were having a lot of fun until their parents made them go home.

"How did you accidentally lock a bunch of kids in a basement for a few hours and nobody noticed they were missing?" Steve wondered aloud. He knew some parents could be forgetful, but how do you lose at least four children? There have had to been four Chloe and Gia each had a twin and they had mentioned many cousins. How do multiple sets of parents lose their children?

"Well," Gia sat down in her original seat, "we all migrate to our grandparent's house nine times out of ten, we sneak in through the doggie door or the widow. Our parents had just assumed we were there, our grandparents were out and about, and Bruce was at school and we had the day off. This was the old door handle that kind of did it's own thing, locked and unlocked whenever so we were down there for what? Six or seven hours?"

"No, it was more like eight or nine." Chloe rebutted. "It's not like we were in danger. We had food, water, electricity, and a bathroom." She tried to defend her family members, they weren't the best sure, but at one time they were good.

"Yeah, my mom calls me in a panic," Bruce looks up as if he memory was there. "Starts screaming at me in Italian, then I had to remind her I don't speak fluent Italian, and she gets more mad, not because I couldn't speak it, but because she made a phone call. My mom is deaf by the way. Told me to check our house for them, so I go home and I hear weird sounds coming from the basement. So I go down and there they are, they look at me and one of them goes 'look a stranger from the outside' and the rest go 'ooh'. Just another day at my house." Bruce shook his head.

"Oh come on, we weren't that bad. I mean Chloe was a freaking angel, but the rest of the twinnies weren't _that_ bad." Gia defended. Bruce and Chloe gave her a look. "What?"

"How about the time you guys decided to 'open your own detailing shop' and drew in Sharpie all over the cars?" Bruce suggested.

"Or the time you guys super-glued Ken's hand and duct taped Ben's hand to the ceiling to see who would fall first?" Chloe proposed.

"Or smack Macy's head into the wall to see if you could really see double?" Bruce brought up.

"Or trying to trick me into believing that I was blind so I could tech you Braille." Chloe recalled.

"What about when you tried to electrocute yourselves so you could go back in time before school was a thing so you didn't have to go?"

"Or the time you guys tried to make dinner but set the kitchen on fire?"

"How about everything that happened during the Summer of the Tree?"

"Or the time you guys literally tried to summon a demon for fun?"

Bruce opened his mouth to continue, but Gia shouted, "alright so we do stupid stuff, we get it!" She shook her head and went back to eating what was once Chloe's cereal.

"I have a question," Tony piped up. "So basically you guys could have died on multiple occasions, so riddle me this. How the _hell_ did any of you make it as long as you did?" He was quiet concerned, he knew he did some weird and wrong stunts when he was younger, but nothing like Bruce and Chloe had described.

"Because", Gia put an arm around her cousin, "we had Chloe who was _clearly_ the mom-friend of the group." She put her arm around her cousin.

Vision also spoke up. "I also have a question, what is a twinny?" He was quite curious of human interaction, because the purpose of most actions were confusing to him. Once he learned the bases of what was okay and what was not okay to ask, he did just that. Vision was trying to understand the different customs between cultures and they way Gia, Chloe, and Bruce acted was very different than the way the Maximoff twins acted.

Bruce was waiting for this, he had to explain this concept many times. "It's what we refer my oldest nieces and nephews as. Each of my siblings had a set of twins in one summer; Chloe being first, Gia and her sister, Lacy and Macy after, and then Ken and Ben. When we refer to all of them together we just say the twinnies. After them comes Julia, then the twins Jack and Zack, and finally comes Tori." He looked between his two oldest nieces. "That's it right? Nobody else had anymore kids right?"

"Nope you're good, they finally stopped reproducing." Gia patted his arm.

Bruce muttered something that sounding like a 'Thank God'. "Don't get me wrong, I love you guys and all. It's just there's so many of you. You turn the corner to escape from one and bam there's another one. We'd finally get the youngest out of diapers then one of my other siblings was announcing they were having another kid." He shook his head at his rant.

"Guess what?" Gia quickly grabbed Chloe's arm to which she yelped. "Oh right, pain disorder, my bad I forgot. On the bright side, it only took more than my entire life of filming, but I finished my movie!" Chloe congratulated her cousin, she knew that this film was important to her. Gia wanted to be a director and putting this movie together was a huge goal. She had changed the plot on multiple occasions, the last she heard it was a _'Romeo and Juliet'-_ esque type love story with between two kids from rival schools who met online and were obsessed with their phones (she only knew this because she had helped with the script, Gia couldn't write to save her life).

"First of all, ow, and second of all, what do you mean it took more than your whole life to film?" Chloe asked. Although Gia was excited, she knew that look, it meant there was more to the story. She loved her cousin dearly, she didn't trust the look on her face.

"Well I kinda didn't film, it's actually Popples's home films plus the ones we made along the way, with narration." Gia smiled and Chloe sighed. "Oh come on, it's all of us as tiny little squibbies! And I'm also very offended that you didn't tell me about the whole brownies thing." Gia persuaded.

Chloe hid her head in her hands, but not before the team caught her blushing. "We swore we'd take it to the graves. And why would I bring something that mortifying at my own pleasure?"

Tony smirked, "wait, _all_ of you, including the Jolly Green Giant, as a 'squibby' you said. As in a child?" Bruce protested this idea. "We have to see it! Come on, Brucie we want to see you as a child. It's my house, er tower, and I demand that we watch this masterpiece at once!" Tony whined.

"Can we please watch it?" Natasha asked, she wanted to see what Bruce was like as a child. She thought it would funny to see him as a child, plus it would be a good way to get to know him.

Bruce sighed, if Natasha was on board there was no way he was going to win. But that didn't mean he shouldn't play his cards right. "Only if none of you, or F.R.I.D.A.Y record any of it." All of the team promised and they began to all set up in lounge to watch the film.

Gia came out with the DVD and turned it on. It instantly went to a home screen with a picture of the family. Bruce was right there was a lot of them. The two older people in the front must have been his parents. They each had a small child on one knee and an even smaller child sitting on both of their knees. The two who sat on one knee looked like a mirror image of each other while the girl was to young to tell who she would look like. On the older lady's side stood a young girl who looked about six, she was cute she, her smile was wide and she was missing a tooth. On the older man's side stood what could only be Chloe, she stood out against the family, other than two people. Behind the couple were four girls. You could barely tell them apart from each other. Two stood with their right shoulder facing the camera and the other two stood with their left shoulder toward the camera. Behind them stood five younger males, the two on one end were facing the same way as the girls, the two on the other end stood facing the same way as the other girls and the one stood facing forward. Behind them stood four women, three you could tell were related, though one looked slightly different. Behind them stood four men three of who looked similar while one didn't. All together there were 24 people in the picture.

"Damn that's a lot of people," Tony said looking at all the people, he had a small family. Both he and his parents were only children so he had no cousins, nieces or nephews.

"This was right before Bruce went to college." Gia walked up to the screen. She pointed to the two older people, "that's our grandparents, the two boys on their knees are Jack and Zack, good luck telling them apart because on the D.L I see them daily and I sure as shit can't. The little one on both their knees is little Tori, Chloe's baby sister and the youngest. The one next to Gram is Julia and obviously the one next to Popples is Chloe. Because she was the _favorite."_ Gia playfully glared and Chloe innocently shrugged, she was still blushing from the whole 'Brownie secnario'. "The girls are as followed, wait hold on this was awhile ago." She paused and moved her finger over each of them and mouthing words trying to remember the order of which they stood.

"It's you, Lia, Macy and Lacy, you guys are in birth order." Chloe spoke up.

"Right, I knew that," Gia grumbled. "The boys are Ben, Ken, Jamie, Bruce, and Joey. Behind them are our mothers; Kelsey, Chelsea, Anne, and Bonnie. And behind them are their respective husbands; John, Joe, Johnny, and Christopher. One of those is not like the other, can you guess which one it is?" She continued, "Aunt Kelsey and Uncle John had Ken, Ben, and Julia. My mother and father had yours truly and the bitch I am forced to call my sister. Johnny married Anne, who herself had two sets of identical twins, while the rest of the twins in the family are fraternal. She had Macy and Lacy and Jack and Zack, in fact Jack and Zack were conjoined twins, but since it was at the hand they were separated. And Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Chris had Chloe, Joey, and little Tori. Gram and Popples had Kelsey, Chelsea, Johnny, Bonnie, and Bruce. Questions?"

"Where did Jamie come from?" Steve asked. He looked like a mix of the families, mainly Chloe and her dad and the rest of Bruce's family. Had had surfer blonde hair, blue eyes, sunkissed skin, and was tall. His hair was longer than any other of the guys. Plus when Gia went over the family tree she didn't mention Jamie.

"Jamie," Bruce began, "is my childhood best friend. He was basically my brother, he was always over, ate with us, played with my nieces and nephews, he even called my dad his dad, he even followed in my father's footsteps and joined the SEALS. He would have had his own room if my brother would give up his even though he moved out and was married with children." Bruce smiled at the memories of his friend.

"Why didn't he call your mom, mom if he referred to your father as your dad and what the D.L mean?" Wanda asked. She didn't understand the logic behind that. Did he only like one of Bruce's parents? Did something happen? And what was with American slang?

Bruce sighed, he usually didn't tell people his friend's story, he let the boy do it. It wasn't Bruce's to tell anyway. "He tried on multiple occasions he even apologized for it, but his mom died saving him. When Jamie was three they both were caught in the cross fire of a gang fight and Jamie's mom sacrificed herself for Jamie. Coincidentally, it was his absent father who killed her. He tried to call my mother that, but every time he did he saw his mother die all over again plus that was his mother, he felt like he was replacing her. It just wasn't coming out for anyone. He could barely call my dad, dad, but he never had anyone to call dad." Bruce gave Jamie a lot of credit; everyday Jamie was tormented for the fact it was his biological father who killed his mother. Anyone reminded him, the kids at school, people on the street, even his foster parents. "How is Jamie?" He wanted to here good news about his friend.

Gia shrugged, "we kinda can't talk to him right now. He is somewhere in the Middle East and calling us might blow his teams cover. Oh and the D.L means the Down Low." Gia wasn't too close with him, but she knew how much he meant to Bruce and Chloe. Granted, she could have been more delicate with the news but she was used to being nonchalant. Her sister was over dramatic about everything, so she toned down her emotions, maybe a little too much.

Chloe piped up, "Operation: S.T.R.A.W.B.E.R.R.Y F.I.E.L.D.S is classified, it's a high profile opp." Her eyes widened when she said this, "which I know nothing about. Anyway shall we begin?"

The button was pressed and the movie began. It started off with younger versions of the 'Twinnies' as they were called, they could have been any age since they all looked a different age. They were all sitting on the rim of a trampoline, all in the order of which they were born. The camera was frozen on them. _"Here we have the original eight, the Twinnies."_ Gia's voice narrated, " _we were all born in one summer. The Summer of the Twins as it was called. We have a name for each summer; The Summer of the Five-Minute Storm, The Summer of The Tree, The Summer of Headbands to name a few. Our first thirteen summers were pretty eventful, but this story is about our lives. Not just the summers. First let me introduce you to us."_

The camera zoomed into Joey, he was sitting towards the person next to him, smiling at them. In the tower Chloe rest her head on Gia's shoulder at the sight of her brother. Gia squeezed her arm and Chloe nodded, telling her she was okay. Gia put two fingers over her veins on her wrist and the rest of her fingers were curled over the top of her wrist. _"This is Joey, he's the sporty boy."_ A seal that was shaped like a football went underneath his face. _"He is the oldest out of all of us. He may not be a straight A student, but he wasn't failing. He was playing football or any other sport any chance he got. He was the leader, ready to lend a hand at any time. He was great, but though we all loved him, he loved Chloe more than any of us."_

The camera went to Chloe next, she was sitting with her legs crossed, smiling at her brother. " _This is Chloe, she's the artsy one."_ The seal that went under Joey did the same to Chloe but it was a paint brush. " _She's the mom-friend of the group and probably the second smartest girl, next to her little sister, we'll get to her in a minute. I can't tell you how many times she got us out of trouble."_

The camera went to Gia next, she has hugging Chloe's arm while leaning on it, " _then comes yours truly. I am the narrator of this story, because well, I am part of this story. I am the loud one."_ The seal that was a megaphone appeared under her. " _And that's saying something because our family is loud. I'm also the silly one, or so I am told. I'm usually the way to make jokes at the wrong times."_

Next came her sister, she had someone's arm in her face and it honestly looked like she was biting it, " _this bitch is my sister, Lia."_ The term bitch came right across her face. " _Oops, didn't mean to put it there but we're going to leave it. At first we thought she was just bossy, but now she is the queen of bitchiness. Seriously she makes Regin_ a _George sound nice."_

Next came a girl who looked fancy, she had both of her arms out covering the two people's faces on either side of her trying to bring the attention to herself. _"This is Macy, Lia's right hand bitch. She is the girly girl, well she's something else that describes her better, but I'm trying to make this as kid-friendly as possible."_ Slightly over her face came a seal of a high heel. _"Never under any circumstances give her any sort of power, she becomes worse than a Gremlin or Eric Cartman. Personally I think she should go to hel- STOP TALKING I'M RECORDING YOU FUCKING BITCH!"_ Gia screamed to someone off camera. _"Where was I, oh Macy, uck, moving on."_

Next came a girl who looked a lot like the three in front of her, though she was dressed more causally. She was currently pushing her sister's arm out of the way. " _Unfortunately when you have twins there's two. This is Lacy, the total opposite of Macy, though the only thing they have in common besides parents is that they are both bitches. Lacy is a total tomboy who hates dressing up and boys which is something Macy loves. I don't know how they came from the same womb at the same time. She's into sports like Joey."_ The seal for her was a baseball.

A boy came up after her, he looked slightly different than the others simply because he was covered in freckles. He was elbowing the last person to his left. _"This is Ken, he's cool. He's kind of like Chloe except he can't draw for shit. He's quiet like her and is a smarticle particle."_ An atom symbol appeared. _"I swear there isn't a history event or backstory this boy doesn't know. You don't know something, he probably does, unless it's girls, that's Ben's area of expertise."_

The camera went to the last person of the, a boy. He, Ben, looked a lot like his brother Ken. " _This is Ben, or as we like to call him, Bad Boy Ben."_ A broken heart symbol appeared right over his heart. _"He is a stereotypical bad boy doesn't do anything unless he can gain from it, breaks hearts like they're made of paper, doesn't listen to shit."_ Gia paused, " _NO I'M TALKING ABOUT WINSTON SMITH, OF COURSE I'M TALKING ABOUT BEN, WHO ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING ABOUT YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING WALNUT!? STOP TALKING WHILE I'M RECORDING! Back to Ben, yeah, he's a dick most of the time,_ _but with us he can different, sometimes."_

 _"Then"_ Gia continued, " _time went along and there were more of us, our siblings."_ The video unfroze. Chloe threw her head back laughing while tapping Gia's head that rested on her shoulder, as everyone guessed Lia bit Macy's arm while Lacy slapped her, and Ken and Ben were elbowing each other at increasing strengths. Someone off camera yelled "incoming" and four more children jumped onto their siblings laps (except for Tori who Joey picked up and she crawled into her sister's lap who promptly stuck her tongue out at him).

 _"This chick is Julia"_ Gia explained zooming in on her like she had done for the others. She was sitting on Ken's lap. _"She's cute, but graphic. She loves anything scary,"_ a tombstone appeared on her. _"I swear you lock this girl in room with Pennywise, Freddy, Micheal Myers, that girl from The Ring, Hannibal Lector, and those special little snowflakes from Courage the Cowardly Dog for a couple of hours and she'll come out leading them. She took after her older brother's Ken and Ben, unfortunately."_

Next the camera moved to a set of twins on Macy and Lacy's laps. _"This is Jack and Zack or Zack and Jack. I can't tell 'em apart. They act too similar to each other for me to know. They both are like their sisters though, always causing trouble."_ A seal that said 'IDK' was put over them.

Then the camera shifted to the last of them. _"And last but not least is little Tori. She is the smartest out of all of us."_ An A appeared on her. _"She's constantly correcting us and telling us stuff that we don't know. Like what seven year old does advanced calculus for fun and knows how to take apart a Polaroid and put it back together?!"_

 _"When we all get together we are crazy. We're loud, except for Chloe and Ken, we have many good memories with each other."_ The screen flashed with quick scenes of them growing up. _"And most importantly we love each other very much."_ All three of the family members snorted. The screen went to black and a voice (that was similar to but not Gia's) yelled, _"BEN I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU TOUCH MY FUCKING YOGURT AGAIN I'M GOING TO CHOP OFF YOUR DICK AND STAPLE IT TO YOUR HEAD AND YOU'LL BE A DICK-ACORN!"_

The screen was still black and the words "Johnny and Anne's wedding February 1998". The camera's picture was fuzzier than the previous one. You could tell it was the nineties, the the puffy dress, the curly hair, the decorations, the music, everything. The party seemed very fancy, people dressed to nines while some people were getting drunk on the dance floor. The camera was getting shots of different things the cake, the decorations, the bride and groom.

The shot went to a little boy who couldn't be more than five was sitting at one of tables where the wedding party sat. He had curly hair and big brown eyes that screamed Bruce. He was in a fancy suit and was tugging at it. The team gawked at a blushing Bruce, telling him how cute he was. A man, the groom, walked up and patted Bruce on the shoulder. _"You uncomfortable buddy?"_ Bruce nodded. _"Well you can't walk around naked."_

 _"Why?"_ Bruce asked _"You do at home."_ After saying this he jumped up and ran to the camera. The camera shifted as he jumped up into the cameraman's arms. _"You can't get me, na na na boo, boo!"_ Young Bruce teased.

The man walked off grumbling and Bruce was put on the ground. And the person filming asked, _"Bruce, do you have anything to say to your brother for good luck for his marriage?"_

Bruce scratched his head and thought for a second. _"Uh, don't say anything stupid because then you'll haveta sleep on da couch and if you two ever break up I'm siding with her because I like her more then you. Can I have cake now?"_ The Avengers howled at this, Bruce was usually pretty quiet, but little kids had no filter. Bruce just happened to be one of those kids.

The man behind the camera chuckled, _"Bruce, be nice, you're a guest here."_

 _"No I'm not, Johnny said not to come,"_ Bruce put his hand up. _"Mommy said I hasta come. I wanted to stay home, but d'en Mommy used her scary voice and now I'm here."_ Young Bruce pouted walking off while the team laughed.

"Trust me guys," Bruce said, "you can laugh all you want now, but when you here my mom's scary voice, you'll be running away." He wasn't kidding, his mother had a rough and raspy voice that was scary enough, but when she got mad, she was terrifying. And at that age he knew when his mom got quiet she about to explode, it was like she was preparing to pounce. Saving her energy for the kill.

The video continued to a lady walking Bruce back to the cameraman. _"Daddy, you gotta hear this!"_ She exclaimed and knelt down to Bruce's level. _"Bruce tell Daddy where babies come from."_

Bruce sighed and slapped his forehead, _"here we go again! At a Mommy and Daddy's wedding da' girl wears a white dress, da'y cut the cake, and nine months later, tada, a baby pops out!"_ He made a face that made it seem like everyone else was stupid.

Bruce's dad laughed, " _what happened when we had you, it was years after our wedding?"_ He asked.

Bruce tilted his head and looked back and forth between his father and the lady. _"You guys do know I'm five and only in Preschool right?"_ Young Bruce shook his head and and walked off. The team couldn't contain their laughter.

"Wait," Tony got everyone's attention, "it was February and you were five but you were still in Preschool?" He was confused, that didn't make any sense to him.

Bruce got this question a lot, "well in New Jersey if you are born after September 30th you have to wait an extra year to start school, so it's fair to everybody else. Since my birthday is in December, I well exceed the limit." He shrugged, it didn't really matter he had skipped three grades technically, though he didn't count skipping first grade, because he should have been in second with the kids his age.

"Wait you're from New Jersey?" Pietro asked, "I thought Chloe lived in California?" He didn't know much about Geography, but he knew enough to know that the two were very far apart.

"I was born in New Jersey," Chloe explained, "after my dad's last deployment in Iraq they gave him a job at the Naval base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, then we moved to California after that and now I'm here."

Next the black screen that said the 'Birth of the the Schuyler Twins, June 20th 1999', and then in parenthesis (The Beginning of the End of Tranquility). Chloe playfully glared at her cousin. The camera zoomed in on her brother as a baby.

 _"Chloe is in the NICU,"_ A gruff female voice said far behind the camera (though the team couldn't place it she had a South Philly accent along with Bruce's father). _"She looks exactly like her father."_ There was a hint of annoyance. _"'Course he wouldda' known if he was here,"_ she seethed.

 _"It's not Chris's fault he was deployed directly after they got married, he had no way of knowing Bonnie was pregnant. Besides it's not like he left outta blue, he's serving our country, even though he wasn't born here."_ The man paused. " _I always wanted a blonde one, anyway."_ The cameraman, Bruce's dad said.

 _"Hey!"_ Bruce whined.

The man chuckled and handed the camera off. He picked up Bruce and when he stood the team finally saw his face. He had a tan and wrinkled skin. He had white hair that was just long enough that when you combed it up you could make a little Mohawk. He had glasses like Bruce and had Bruce's eyes. _"You don't count Bruce, you're my child, and unlike your siblings you are perfect."_ The man began to tickle Bruce and his squeal echoed. The older Banner, Bruce's father, pointed to the baby he had zoomed in on. _"See him? That's your nephew Joey._ _Bruce you have to be a big boy now, you're an uncle."_

 _"How? I'm only six!"_ Bruce exclaimed. _"I don't know how! I dunno, I dunno, I dunno!"_ Bruce put his head in his hands.

The man chuckled once again. _"Just think, what would Johnny do? Then do the exact opposite."_

Bruce said to the team, "I still use that advice."

 _"Daddy? Uh, I know I'm only in Kindergarten, but Bonnie was having twins and d'ere is only one baby. Shouldn't d'ere be two?"_ Bruce asked.

 _"Very smart Bruce, yes, your sister had twins but little Chloe has to stay in a special place until she feels better so she doesn't get the other babies sick."_ He explained, he had to be careful, Bruce was smarter than most kids his age. He could sniff out a lie faster than a mother could. It wasn't a lie though, Chloe and Joey were born while Bonnie had just gotten over the flu which was still in Chloe's system.

The video changed to saying 'The Birth of the Duffy Girls, July 4th 1999'. This time the video showed a baby Gia and baby Lia. Who were hard to tell apart. After showing them the cameraman walked back to the waiting room. There they saw two heavily pregnant women, two men, and Bruce. One of the men was dead asleep while leaning on one of the women, presumably his wife. Bruce was standing on the chair next to him drawing on his face while the others were giving him tips.

 _"Bruce,"_ the man warned. The team now knew the man's voice.

 _"Johnny said dat no one, especially you, don't love me,"_ Bruce pouted.

Bruce's dad sighed, " _carry on, I didn't see nuttin'."_ Bruce smiled and continued to right 'dummyhead' on his brother's head.

The video changed, but was still in the same hospital room. The screen held the words, 'Birth of the Banner girls, July 31st 1999'. The video once again showed two babies, specifically girls, that were damn near impossible to tell apart.

The camera moved to the waiting room like it did before, but this time Bruce was the one asleep. He had on a pair of pajamas that had the Luxo balls from _Toy Story._ He was curled up on the seat in a tight position and hugging himself (making the team collectively 'aw'). A hand reached out and gently shook Bruce to wake him, _"Bruce,"_ he voiced called softly.

He kept repeating this motion until the lady with the gruff voice yelled, _"Bruce Charles Banner, you better get the hell up!"_

Bruce bolted up and looked frantically around, _"whatever it is you think I did Johnny did it!"_ He was replaying all the memories he could think of and tried to see what he did that could get his mom to call him by his full name.

 _"Marie, you scared him! I was just asking if he wanted to go see Macy and Lacy, though I probably shouldn't have, he's six and it's 3:30 in the morning, he should be asleep. Go back to sleep."_ Bruce nodded and returned to his sleeping position.

Once again the video changed to another set of babies and the screen said 'Birth of the Bassi Boys, August 9th 1999'. Two babies who looked very similar, but if you looked hard enough you could see the difference. Like all the other babies shown they had a mop of brown hair on their heads.

This time it was Bruce who spoke up, _"there's no more babies, it's over right?"_ He asked and the camera turned to him. _"Because I don't want my sisters screaming again."_ The team at first was laughing but now was saying 'aw' once again.

The man, most likely Bruce's father rubbed his head. " _For now, if they decided to babies in the future, we'll help them, okay?"_ Bruce nodded, _"now let's get you home, we've been here a while."_ Bruce took his father's hand and they began walking away.

The scene changed to the twinnies when they were slightly older. It was their first Christmas and they all were sitting (or laying in Ben and Ken's case) as their parents opened their presents. They were sitting there wide eyed as they were being handed presents, making little noises.

Bruce came running up to the camera and started talking to the man behind the camera. _"Dad look,"_ he showed his father a Chemistry kit and started spewing off random facts about it.

 _"Bruce,"_ his brother Johnny spoke up, _"you are an odd child, why are you so weird?"_

 _"I don't know, why are you such an idiot?"_ Bruce gave his brother a deadpan look and then continued talking to his father.

The video kept going to show more events for Bruce and his nieces and nephews (and eventually Jamie). Even one where Macy was handed to her Aunt who was her mother's identical twin. She tried to escape and get to her dad, then looked between her mother and aunt, pointed to her mom and said 'Momma'.

Birthday's, holidays, and the children's milestone's were shown, except one; Chloe's first words. Most of the children could be seen trying to talk or make some noise that was similar, but not Chloe. She laughed and cried, but those were the only noises she made, other than that she was quiet as a mouse. She didn't talk, even when people tried to get her to talk, she would just sit there and blink. If she wanted something she would tug on her brother, Bruce, or her grandfather and once they knew what she wanted she was given it.

Other then that she was 'normal'. She played well with her brother and cousins, though she couldn't speak. She was ahead of them in certain ways, by the time she was three she could write her name. She could read books and draw very well. Chloe was trying to show her cousins what she could do, but it was hard to when you couldn't talk.

"Why does Chloe not talk in these?" Wanda asked curiously. She didn't know why she was so shy, she was told that when she was younger, Chloe would sing whenever she wanted.

"Well _somebody,_ " both of Chloe's family members looked at her, "didn't speak until the day before her seventh birthday." Chloe blushed heavily.

"Why?" Pietro asked he had never heard of that. A child not speaking until the were almost seven?

"I don't know," Chloe admitted, "I just never did. Then one day out of the blue I just started talking." She looked up at him. She pushed a piece of hair behind her ear and bit her lip, this drove Pietro nuts. She looked so innocent there, being all bashful and shy. It was a nice sight; her hair pushed behind her ear, her biting her lip, a blushed face. He wondered if that would be how she would look when she saw him in all his glory for the first time. If that was how she would look at him as she waited for him to insert himself inside her. How would she look underneath him? How would she-

Focus Pietro! He snapped at himself, he would not, could not think of her like that. Chloe was not an object he could not use her in his desires. She was a living , breathing, human being with emotions that he kind of disregarded. She was damaged, badly damaged, she needed help not a boyfriend or a fuckbuddy. She needed someone who cared, who could give her all the love she deserves, something Pietro could not do.

She needed someone who would not become half hard after the look on her face (which was totally _not_ happening right now).

Wanda quietly told him in their native tongue that she could here his 'schoolboy thoughts' and did not need that image in her head.

The scene on the T.V was a funny one, it was of Ken and Ben fighting over the last cookie. It was hard to make out what they were saying since they were about five and speaking very fast. Just then Chloe happened to walk by, she paused and watched their fight like it was a ping-pong match. She shrugged then pushed Ken back a few inches so there were two drawers in between them. Whilst the two yelled at each other she opened the bottom drawer and the second drawer up next to it. She used the drawer as stairs to get her high enough to reach the cookie (which was pushed back on the counter), which she took and promptly bit into. She climbed down, closed the drawers and skipped away chewing all the while the two boys were still in a screaming match. They fought for about another thirty seconds until someone told them to _"shut the hell up and share the goddamn cookie"_. The two raised an eyebrow and then shrugged. They reached for the cookie but it was long gone.

 _"Hey what gives?"_ They both asked, they really wanted that cookie even though it was only half. In the background someone laughed loudly.

The scene changed to back in the hospital waiting room, the screen said 'Birth of Julia Bassi September 15 2005'. Right now, the kids were all in the waiting room sitting uncomfortably. They were all kind of traumatized from seeing the beginnings of labor along with Jamie, Bruce was fine, he had been there for the twinnies when they were born. He sat there eating a bag of chips and trying to distract his friend.

The camera zoomed in on Ken and Ben, _"boys,"_ their grandfather started the question, _"where do babies come from?"_

 _"Um, uh, a, vine!"_ Ben quick said while Ken looked at him quizzically. _"Yeah a vine. What"_ he looked at his brother, _"you gots a better idea?"_

Bruce's dad moved to Lacy and Macy, _"girls where do babies come from, like baby Julia?"_

 _"Uh,"_ the one twin who was wearing a purple headband thought for a second, _"baby Jules is coming out of Aunt Kelsey's butt."_ The two girls giggled when the one said butt, but they were five.

The camera moved to another set of girls, most likely Gia and Lia, _"where do babies come from?"_

 _"God,"_ one answered quickly. _"I don't know how 'cause da lord work in mystery ways."_

The camera went to Chloe and Joey and they were asked the same question. Joey looked at his sister, she knew a lot of stuff he didn't, like the fact that scented soap _did not_ in fact taste like it smelled. Her answer came from T.V, _Icarly_ to be exact. She pointed two fingers straight out, she spun one then the other, then brought them together and spun them. Joey nodded in agreement with her answer.

Then the lady with the rough voice spoke up, _"Ken, Ben come see your little sister."_ The lady was tall, had a slight tan, graying hair, and brown eyes. The boys muttered a 'yes gram' and followed with their cousins trailing.

When they got to the screen the two stood on a stool and their grandmother pointed out a baby. She looked a lot like her brothers when they were born except she was swaddled in a pink blanket. She was asleep at the moment as the two boys looked at each other. Ben pointed at his sister and turned to his grandmother. _"What is this?! We requested an evil minion and you give us this, this-"_ He couldn't figure out how to express his 'disappointment'.

 _"She looks like a jellybean!"_ Ken announced.

 _"Yes, this jellybean!"_ Ben crossed his arms and pouted. He didn't even want a baby sister, _he_ was the baby until she was born. Now it was all Julia this, Julia that, no Ben you cannot shoot your sister to the moon, he did not like it. _"Where can I return her?"_

 _"Ben, you will treat your sister nicely. You'll love having a sister."_ Their grandmother warned, she had a feeling this was how her children had acted when Bruce was born. Just behind her back, there was no way they would do that in front of her.

Ben huffed, _"you can't make me."_ He said smugly crossing his arms. She gave him a look, _"alright, you can make me, I'll be nice."_

The scene changed again, showing little arguments or the kids saying stupid things. Out of the blue Chloe started talking; not broken sentences, she busted out full sentences like she had been talking this whole time. She could be seen skipping around singing little songs. The funniest was between two moments. One when they gave her a get-well card and they spelled her name wrong. _"Who wrote this,"_ she asked, _"number moron?"_

 _"Tell me about it,"_ Gia rolled her eyes.

Her twin Lia, put her hands on her hips. _"Who ya calling moron?"_

The second was Chloe and Bruce in the basement doing science stuff. Chloe was following him around while writing things down. He was rambling about he was going to prove how he shouldn't have gotten a B when he _clearly_ deserved an A-. Bruce father took her 'notes' and held them up to the camera, but they weren't notes, they were drawings of her family member doing embarrassing things. _"Chloe,"_ her grandfather started and she put her head down, _"your Uncle Johnny fell into a lake not a pool okay? And your mom has a bigger nose."_ Chloe looked up and smiled at her grandfather, showing her missing a tooth. _"Gimme a kiss,"_ she walked up and did as she was told. _"Continue,"_ he said and then turned to leave.

A few more moments like that were shown and then came the time when Jack and Zack were born. Since Bruce and Jamie were both fourteen, they were left to watch the nine year old twinnies and little three year old Julia. They had built a fort and Gia was giving a 'tour'. She opened the curtain to the entrance, _"oh hey, come check out my crib."_ She gave the camera person a minute to get in. She pointed to her right, _"this is where I shit,"_ (Gia was just starting to curse) and she pointed to her left, _"and this is where I pray to God, sometimes he answers."_

She moved farther in to where Bruce was sitting while writing in a binder. _"This is Bruce, he just likes to chill here."_ He didn't look up and she paused. _"I can't believe this Bruce, why didn't you tell me?"_ Bruce gave her a confused look, _"you took drugs without me? What is this democracy? No, this is hell."_ She turned away from him while he rolled his eyes. She turned back and pointed towards the 'door'. In a southern accent she said. _"You're country, I'm southern, I want you out of my house."_ The person filming started laughing as Bruce just ignored her.

 _"Hey Bruce where do babies come from?"_ Someone asked from off screen.

Bruce yelled 'I'm out' and left the fort. Gia yelled behind him, _"leave! Don't let the pillow hit you on the way out."_ Gia crawled to where her sister was sitting. Still talking in her accent she sat next to her sister. _"This is my twin Lia,"_ she put her hand on her leg. _"She maybe into sports or other things, we don't know she's a mystery child."_ With a disgusted face she moved her sister's hand.

Crawling to where Chloe sat Gia yelled, _"I got pictures of cute boys!"_ Out of her pocket she pulled out pictures of corn and started going on about how 'cute' they were.

The scene kept showing the kids growing and eventually when Chloe was eleven Tori came into the picture after she was five months old. She was born in Hawaii so the family didn't see her until the family visited over the summer.

At one point they filmed one of them asking why their grandfather called their grandmother cute names like 'hun'. He looked around and leaned into the person who asked and said, _"honestly, five years ago I forgot her name and I'm to afraid to ask."_

The camera walked over to Chloe's mom and grandmother. They were arguing like there was no tomorrow, over what nobody knew. The older Banner pointed up the stairs and yelled for Bonnie to go to her room. Bonnie rolled her eyes, _"Ma, I'm a grown woman who is married with three children, you can't tell me to go to my room. Besides, you never send Bruce to his room!"_ She complained.

Her mother rolled her eyes, _"this is my house and you will do as I say. And please, Bruce doesn't leave his room, if I were to ground him I'd probably hide his books or make him go outside and do physical activity."_

Bruce opened the door they were standing in front of and yelled. _"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!"_ And slammed the door.

There was a video of the family saying goodbye to Bruce as he left for college. They each said goodbye to the sixteen year old and as he got in the car his brother yelled, _"get laid while you're there!"_

Without turning to him, _"like you know what that is."_

The next shot was of their grandfather rocking in a rocking chair. Unbeknownst to the team, it was _his_ rocking chair. it was beige with flowers and leaves on vines that had faded into a dark brown. The wood was a medium oak and was well polished. He had gotten as a gift from his mother after he came back from the Korean war. It was Poppy's chair, it was sat exactly at the spot where he could watch T.V with ease. Nobody messed with this chair, he would get mad if you spilled something near it. His wife was allowed to clean it not sit in it. The only people who were allowed to sit in it were Bruce, Jamie, Chloe, and Chloe's father Chris (unlike the rest of his children's spouse he liked him).

Back to the scene, their grandfather was rocking with his eyes closed. The person was about to walk away but he opened his eyes. Before his medical issues he was a Sharpshooter in the Navy SEALS during both WW2 and the Korean war. He would have been called to the Vietnam war as well, but his health got in the way. Being trained to be a Sharpshooter meant it was _impossible_ to sneak up on him.

 _"Pop, how old do you think you are?"_ A voice, that was Joey's, asked. The team couldn't guess that, since the camera was tilted at an angle for someone very tall and Joey had a young teen's voice.

 _"76"_ he answered. He had Alzheimer's disease and his memory was going.

 _"Higher,"_ the voice said.

 _"77?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"78?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _79?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"80?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"1?"_ He scrunched his face up, not liking where this was going.

 _"Higher."_

 _"2?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"3?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"4?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"5?"_

 _"Higher."_

 _"6?"_

 _"There you go,"_ the voice said happily. _"You're eighty six, Poppy."_

The man looked like he didn't believe the boy behind the camera. _"You gotta be messin' wit' me. There is no way in hell I'm that old!"_ He shook his head. Just then Chloe and her grandmother walked in. Her grandmother went into the kitchen while Chloe stopped to talk to her grandfather. She kissed his head and before she could say anything he said. _"Go get Mrs. Banner."_ Chloe nodded and went to the room her grandmother just went in. He tugged on her hair lightly, _"not her, my mother."_ Chloe nodded with tears in her eyes and walked into a different room. _"Hey kid,"_ the old Banner nodded to the person filming, _"who was that lady? She sure was pretty, I think I'm going to ask her to marry me."_ He smiled.

 _"Popples,"_ the cameraman began, _"you are already married to her."_ Before he could protest he added, _"look at your ring finger."_

The man did and saw a wedding band. His face lit up and he smiled. _"I'm married to her?"_ The camera moved with the nod of approval. _"Hot digs, I hit the Jackpot!"_ He cried out, pumping his fists in the air.

Pictures of their grandfather showed on the screen. Some were him in the military, but most were with family. "A _couple months after that, Popples, as we called him, passed away. The night he died, he sent his three daughters to their old room because they had cursed. Even when he was dying, he never stopped being Poppy. A few months after his death we found we were going through his stuff when we found some really cool stuff. We found special uniforms, letters from past Presidents and people in power, but most importantly a medal of honor. And not just any medal, a Purple Heart to be exact. Over the years we had asked him how he got his scar on his face."_ A picture of their grandfather showed he had a scar from his ear to his cheek. _"It turns out when he was in Korea fighting somebody threw a grenade in where he and his buddy were. He jumped on his spotter to save him from the blast; a piece of shrapnel embedded in his face making him deaf until he died. He almost died, but when he came to he was only worried about his friend."_

The next scene was of Julia, Jack, Zack, and Tori all sitting at a table eating breakfast. They quietly ate their cereal as someone filmed them. _"Where do babies come from?"_ The voice, which was Ben's, asked.

Julia put her spoon down, _"babies are born when a mom and a dad get married and when they kiss there's a sparkle-ly little thing that goes into the moms belly."_ She smiled proudly, she thought she knew, since she was nine now.

 _"No!"_ One of the boys shouted putting a hand up, _"they come from different countries!"_ The other boy nodded slowly, making it seem like Julia's answer was stupid.

All eyes and the camera turned to Tori who was munching away on her cereal. She looked up and raised an eyebrow. Just as she started Chloe and Jamie walked in. _"All I know is that it too big to get outta your mouth, so it go out your p'agina."_ She wiggled in her boaster seat with a smug grin.

 _"We're out!"_ Jamie yelled and pulled a distracted Chloe out of the kitchen.

More scenes played but one was so funny. It was entitled 'The Brownie Incident'. Chloe hid her face in the crook of Gia's neck as her face flushed. She did _not_ want to be reminded of this event. It was embarrassing even though she wasn't the one doing the dumb thing!

The camera showed glimpses of Chloe as she wiped off the lens. She was humming softly ( _Once Upon A December_ from _Anastasia_ to be exact), she looked younger here. She couldn't have been that old, because her figure was less defined here. Every so often she would stop and look through the screen of the camera and grumble. Suddenly he door to the room sprang open. _"Chloe, I need a woman's touch!"_ The person flopped on the bed.

 _"Uh Ken,"_ Chloe said uncomfortably, _"hate to break it to you but we're cousins. I'm pretty sure that's not even legal."_

Ken turned away from Chloe, _"ew, incest, I'm mean you're pretty and all, but that'd be to weird. I didn't mean that kind of help, I need some type of help."_ Chloe set the camera down and began to rub his back.

 _"Thanks, I think? Where's the fire?"_ She asked and Ken finally faced her. She gasped at the sight of his eyes; the pupils were small and the white part was red. _"Ken, are you baked?"_ Chloe couldn't believe this, he there was no way he would ever do that.

Ken sighed, _"like a cake."_ He went on to explain how he had seen his brother eating brownies and then hiding them. Thinking Ben had stolen them from the ones they were going to have at the Fourth of July picnic the next day he ate them. Unbeknownst, to Ken, they were his brother's stash of pot brownies he hid. Ken had eaten majority of the brownies, before he realized they tasted weird, saying he was to hungry to care. When he confronted his brother, Ben yelled at him, told him he need to pay him back for the pot, and told him he was on his own. Since he didn't know what to do, he want to someone he knew wouldn't tell anyone, Chloe.

Chloe left the room to get someone she knew could help her help him, her brother. If Ken had gone straight to Joey, he would get an adult, but if Chloe asked him he wouldn't. Joey trusted her judgement _way_ more than he trusted his own (she had convinced him to stop drinking soda so he wouldn't get such bad acne, he had barely had any problems since and she was right about every person they'd ever come in contact with).

Joey came into the room and looked down at his cousin. He had to look down, Joey was well over six foot, he was actually 6'6 to be exact. He looked into his cousin's eyes, _"Yep, he's as fried as you after a day at the beach."_ Joey joked and Chloe slapped his arm.

The scene went on to Ken asking his cousins different questions. How were they even related (they explained they looked like one parent, genetics), how Chloe grew her hair so long (it was called patience she said), how come they are a dwarf and a giant (again genetics), why do we park in a driveway and drive on a parkway (their answer was science), and how did the female body and mind work (that got no answer besides a punch in the face from Joey).

Soon enough Ken dosed off and the two twins decided to leave him there. They plugged the camera in (they had been recording the scenario) and decided to sleep in where Joey was sleeping. They were spending the summer at their grandmother's house; Chloe and Tori got the guest room (at the moment her and her cousins were having a sleepover at the Bassi house) and Joey got a his uncle Johnny's old room. Jamie of course had Bruce's old room since he had gone to college.

For the record there was a scene where Lacy had asked, _"how did you two fight in that single bed last night?"_

The two looked at each other and at the same time said, _"the same way we fight inside mom."_

The next scene was introduced as 'The Schuyler Twin's Sixteenth Birthday or The One Time All Of Us Got Sunburn And Chloe Didn't' of girls giggling as they entered the room where the brownie incident took place. You could see three similar looking girls, specifically Macy, Lia, and Gia while Lacy recorded. They walked over to the bed then whisper-asked where Chloe was. The lump in the bed was far to small to be her. They found her on the cushioned window seat, snuggling with a tiny pillow and no blanket. The sun was just starting to rise, making a glow around the sleeping girl. _"Chloe,"_ one of the girls shook her, _"wake up!"_

Chloe groaned and turned away, _"Tori, you already kicked me out of the bed, leave me be."_

 _"Plan B,"_ the camera was handed off to someone, while the camera person Lacy scooped her up. Chloe let out a squeak as she was carried out and down the hall. _"Lacy, the stairs are that way,"_ it was true she was walking away from the stairs to the end of the hallway. But at the end of the hallway, there was a railing and beneath it was the Family Room. _"If you're doing what I think you're doing-"_

It was to late, Lacy had thrown Chloe off the second story on to the couch on the first floor. Chloe let out a yelp of surprise as she landed, just then Joey burst out of his room and ran to the railing to see his sister. He and the rest of them glared at Lacy, _"what? You said if they didn't wake up we could do it my way. She's fine, I do it to Macy all the time."_ She waved her hand and began toward the stairs.

 _"I swear if she wasn't family, I'd kill her,"_ Gia grumbled and followed her down the stairs. _"See, I'd get Macy to do it, but let's face it, Lacy would beat her to a pulp."_ Everyone, including Macy, made a sound of agreement and made their way downstairs.

Once they made sure Chloe was okay, which she was she had fallen back asleep, the reason the twins were awoken was revealed. _"Look,"_ Ben started, _"we know you guys didn't go to bed until like two hours ago, 'cause of your flight. But, it's your guys's sixteenth birthday. And although we are having one giant party in July, we decided that because your guys's party is always shared with the Duffy's we are going to spend the day together."_ The twins raised their eyebrows, _"okay so maybe I'm grounded and mom we will let me have a day off, if we all spend it with you guys. And you two are the only ones with licenses, so all you have to do is drive."_

 _"There it is,"_ Chloe grumbled while leaning on her brother. It was hard to get just a set of twins, besides Chloe and Joey together, but to get all the Twinnies together was almost impossible. Unless there was something to gain.

 _"Chloe, don't give me an ugly attitude,"_ Ben gave her look. He knew he was doing it for his own gain, but he didn't need the sarcasm.

Chloe still had her eyes closed when she said, _"Don't make me look at your ugly face and we won't have a problem."_

 _"That was uncalled for."_

 _"Your face is uncalled for."_ Chloe smiled as Ben huffed. _"Anyway, what did you guys have in mind?"_ The three sets of twins looked at each other, they honestly didn't think they would get this far. _"Well, since we always go to the beach, let's go to Uncle Ben's Pancake House in WildWood and then the water-park."_

The camera cut to the twinnies sitting at a table by a window. Chloe and Ken were currently rubbing Ben's back. _"What kind of pancake house in WildWood in the summer, runs out out of ice-cream?!"_

Chloe went on to say that now he could have a better breakfast and Ben scoffed. The camera turned to Joey who was talking to Lacy, _"mom's making Chloe go on a gluten-free diet. I don't think she knows what gluten is, I don't, do you?"_

 _"No,"_ Lacy answered quietly.

 _"Does anybody?!"_ Joey grumbled something.

The next scene was the eight of them in a cabana. It was cover by palm tree leaves and had a big table and chairs. It was big enough for all of them with a view of the ocean. _"I still don't get why we didn't just go to Ocean City, rather than comin' all the way here and have to pay to get in the water-park."_ Ken said.

"Because," Chloe said rubbing on sunblock, _"we always go to the beach and WildWood has a better water-park and boards. Besides here you can get Mack's pizza and Curly's fries."_

The rest of them, besides Joey, looked at her like she had six heads, _"Uh, Chloe what are you doing?"_ They motioned to the bottle of sunblock in her hand.

 _"I'm putting on sunblock, so I don't get sunburnt."_ She explained, though her tone made it sound like a question. _"Hence why my shirt is staying on."_ She crossed her arms over her chest.

 _"What is this sunburn you speak of?"_ Macy asked in a teasing tone.

 _"Okay look dude,"_ she popped her knee out, _"I get that y'all don't sunburn 'cause your Italian genes are stronger than mine. But until, you feel the pain of sun, please stop making fun of me."_ She grumbled. Chloe got sunburn easily, she can get it from going outside to get the mail (which has happened).

The next scene was of them at the boardwalk, while all of them but Chloe were wobbling around. Their skin as red as could be. _"Can't laugh no can ya'? Hey, as they say; she who laughs last laughs best, so HA I say and double Ha, HA HA!"_ At this she slapped Ben's back, who yelped. _"Sorry about that, but maybe now you'll stop doing it to me."_

 _"Bitch,"_ Ben yelled and tried to slap her arm.

 _"Yo Ben, why are you such an asshole?"_ Gia asked standing up for her cousin.

 _"Dude,"_ Ben gave her a look like she was an idiot. _"You and I both know there is mercy in our family which is why A) I have no soul, B) either have to big or to little of a confidence to care what people think, and C) have become the comical asshole you've all become dependent on for laughter abuse."_ He smiled smugly as the rest of them laughed their butts off.

The song _La Bamba_ by Ritchie Valens played in the background and Chloe softly sang along as the rest of them debated on what ride to ride next. Some random guy came over and started yelling at Chloe. He told her she couldn't sing it because she was white and the song was in Spanish. Chloe just waited until he was done yelling and then loudly sang the entire song, in Spanish, by heart, on tempo, hitting every note, and not messing up. She finished with a _"checkmate!"_

The next scene was of Joey, Ken, and Ben 'working out'. It wasn't a traditional core workout though; they sat on the ground with their feet on the floor and leaned back at an angle. Usually, grabbed a weighted ball and moved in from side to side, but not these three. No, instead of a ball they would use Tori, Jack, and Zack for a set and then toss the child to the person on their left. The kids were giggling as their family members used them to work out until Ben 'accidentally' (or so he says) threw Tori to far and she land face first on the ground. She sat up and rushed to her brother. She wasn't hurt, she just liked it when Joey fussed over her.

The screen froze at a picture of Joey tickling his little sister and Chloe laughing in the background. Just as Gia's voice started to narrate she skipped to the next scene. It was her little memorial of Joey and she didn't want to upset Chloe.

The screen changed to a school setting with the words 'Gia's Fight' appeared over the screen. She was arguing with a guy, he kept grabbing her arm or her waist while she yelled at him to let her go. That she had boyfriend no and that they were done for good. At one point he slapped her and the movement around them froze. She held a finger up and turned her head, _"A-yo Ben,"_ The camera turned to Ben who was talking to his brother, _"Matt hit me. Whoop his ass!"_

At this Ben took off his book bag and handed it to his brother. He charged over to the guy and pushed Gia away to Macy and began pushing the guy back and forth. Then they started real fighting, which Ben was winning dramatically. People were gathering around and filming while Lacy checked Gia for injuries, Macy comforted her, and Ken pulled a First-Aid kit out of his bag.

The next scene was of all six of them sitting at their grandmother's kitchen table while she yelled at them. They were being filmed by Julia who was giggling like a mad person. _"What the fuck is wrong with you children?!"_ She yelled, _"how the hell do all six of you get detention on the last day of senior year?!"_

 _"Well,"_ Lia began, _"Matt, Gia's ex came up to her and trying to hook up with her. She kept telling him no and he wouldn't listen, so he slapped her. Gia, maybe strong, but she couldn't take on a wrestler, so she got Ben. I filmed, while Lacy and Macy checked her over and Ken got the First-Aid kit ready. We only got in trouble because we didn't stop Ben from beatin' 'em to a pulp."_

Their grandmother grabbed of something and began drinking it. _"You get some good hits?"_ She asked and he nodded. _"Good, I never liked that son of a bitch anyway."_

Pictures of all of them flashed on the screen. They were all in chronological order so them, some including Bruce. One was of them all leaning on each other as they slept, for example. _"Unfortunately, we all got older. We grew apart, we weren't always together. We fought and for some unfathomable reason my sister and some others of us started hating on Chloe. You think we would have matured, but we didn't, Chloe was always the mature one. Now, we our whole lives ahead of us. We have college, careers, and memories to make. I mean it's adulthood, it's like childhood on steroids, what could happen?"_ The final shot was all of them making a pyramid while Chloe and Tori pointed to it.

The credits rolled and in the corner was a video of Chloe singing 'Girl on Fire'. She was in a car and clearly had no idea she was being filmed. Her eyes were closed and she moved her hands around while she sang. Just like singing La Bamba, she made no mistakes.

Pietro was starting to think she was just prefect.


	8. Chapter 8

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Warning: cursing, fluff, bonding moments, special guests, talk of almost fatal suicide attempts, body hate**_

 _ **Thank you nobody for reviewing. I will not update without at least two reviews, okay?**_

 _ **I decided to add some Vision in this chapter because I realized it seems like I forgot about him. Geoff's nickname is Gee-Off**_

 _ **I'm really sorry guys, I tried to write this chapter as fast as I could, but it's Tech Week. Sorry I pronounced hell wrong. I've been at school from seven a.m until 8 the past two nights, and have to stay until eleven Thursday through Saturday, yeah me. I have no free time because I also have SAT prep.**_

 ** _I don't own Marvel, or HAMILTON An American Musical,_ _Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper,_ _Barbie as Rapunzel, Barbie, Scooby-Doo,_ _Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, Duck Tales,_ _The Powerpuff Girls, Codename: Kids_ _Next Door, Recess, The Care Bears Movie, American Dragon: Jake Long, Teen Titans, Uno, The Addams Family, Harry Potter_ _; only my OCs_**

* * *

In the few days that Gia was staying with the Avengers Chloe seemed different. She was more like the Chloe Bruce had talked about and in those videos. She seemed more comfortable around the team, talking with them, laughing with them. She seemed to be fitting in more smoothly with the team, though she some areas had to be improved.

Chloe jumped whenever there was loud noise, flinched when something made a bang, didn't touch anyone if she could help it, and most importantly she never really made eye contact. It was something only a few of the team members picked up on; she only made eye contact with few people Gia, Wanda, Bruce, and Nat (though people wondered why it was because Bruce trusted her and they cared for each other, if he could trust her so could she).

Surprisingly to Wanda, she fit right in their little group. Wanda thought that as soon as Gia came she would be kicked to the curb, this however was not the case. They included her like they had known each other their entire lives. Wanda was included in everything movie they watched, every outing they went on, every conversation they made, and every reference she didn't get they explained to her. They had even got her to listen to _HAMILTON An American Musical_ , which she did not think she would enjoy. What person from a country who hated America would cry over a hip-hop rap musical about the life story of the American founding-father Alexander Hamilton? Wanda apparently. It was funny and emotional and worth every tear cried over the 46 song album. She didn't think she would like the music, but she did. They had warned her _'we know it sounds like it'll be trash, but you'll get sucked in and never want to leave'._ They weren't wrong.

On the second day after Gia's arrival their was a package for Chloe. This made the girls confused, Chloe didn't have any money on her. When she left her mother had drained her bank account claiming that her hard earned money to be payback for her 'stunt' at her brother's funeral. So she couldn't have ordered anything, and they couldn't think of someone who had sent her anything.

Since the package was from California she assumed it was her mother sending some things she couldn't sell or something. Chloe lifted the box, it was heavy for her since she had almost zero upper body strength. The rest of the team besides the 'Three Musketeers' as they had been dubbed walked in and questioned the package. Chloe's response was, "I don't know, it's kinda heavy, my parents must have sent their disappointment." Gia smacked Chloe's arm lightly, but the girl still flinched.

Chloe opened the package and pulled out a note from the top. "Oh crap, this is from my sister, this can't be good." She opened the note and began reading, _"dear mom (and I don't care what you say, you're my mom), so basically mother told me to get rid of these 'pieces of crap', 'cept she used more colorful words. I know you love these so I figured I'd let you wallow in remembrance of the past (I'm being facetious and trying to make you laugh while using big words). I made copies of the ones I like and gave you the originals. So enjoy. P.S Tell Bruce that I still expect six years worth of Christmas and birthday present because I'm that awesome. Love Tori."_ Chloe rolled her eyes at the letter, "that was the most Tori thing I've heard in awhile."

Chloe looked at her cousin and Gia shrugged. She ripped the paper wrapped around the item and gasped at the sight. "Get down!" Gia yelled and pushed Wanda to the ground. The two started laughing and Gia helped her up. They looked at Chloe who had a hand to her mouth. "I swear to god if she hurt you-"

"I can't believe she kept these," Chloe's voice was shaky and the two girls peered in. She was smiling though, a wave of good memories washed over her.

Gia looked inside the care package, "no fucking way." She exclaimed tilting the box toward her. "This is so cool, next time I see your sister I'm going to hug her." The two cousins began rummaging through the contents of the package, but never took it out. "Hey Bruce," Gia pulled out a movie, "remember this?" She slightly wiggled the movie to show it off.

Bruce groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes, "I refuse to watch _Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper,_ or _Barbie as Rapunzel,_ or any _Barbie_ movie for that matter ever again!" He had to may memories of being forced to watch the latest _Barbie_ movie as child, he knew most of the lines and knew every song by heart. In fact he was made fun of for humming one of them in school.

"Don't worry," Chloe reassured, "there's some _Scooby-Doo_ here with some other shows." Chloe began to pull out some VHS tapes as well as some DVDs from when she was younger. Some the team knew some of the shows like _Scooby-Doo, Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, Duck Tales._ Some they did not know like _The Powerpuff Girls, Codename: Kids_ _Next Door, Recess, The Care Bears Movie, American Dragon: Jake Long, and Teen Titans._ There was a disc in their that said _"Ed, Edd, n Eddy: H_ _anky Panky Hullabaloo"._

"Man," Gia flopped down on the couch, "these shows are takin' me back. This was before I knew what the real world is like."

"Gia, you just turned 18, you've never had a job, you've never lived on your own, you never had to pay for your own stuff." Chloe gave her cousin a look. "We know nothing of the real world."

"And you do?" Gia shot back.

"Granted I've never lived on my own, but I have had my own job and paid for my own stuff. The only thing that really got handed to me was me and Joey's car and even then we split it up." Chloe stopped her reprimand when Gia looked down in shame. This was as close to a fight as the girls got, they hardly ever argued. Yes, they had different opinions, but they heard each other out and made a decision together.

Gia was upset with herself now, she had a cushy life compared to Chloe. For starters she always had both parents around, not a father who was deployed and never really came back completely or a mother who basically neglected her. She didn't have to move around, granted it had only been twice but neither girls liked change. Gia didn't have to practically raise a child at eleven while her mother was off doing lord only knows what. Plus Gia didn't actually lose her best friend.

For Gia's entire life she was kind of the third wheel between Chloe and Joey, which she didn't mind, they often made her forget she was the third wheel. Chloe would always explain that her brother and her cousin were best friends, not one or the other. Gia understood that Joey was her twin and they were as close as could be, but when the two girls got together it was like they were never separated.

But when Joey was murdered (she hated saying it, but it was true) Gia stepped up. She and her family flew out to help the Schuylers' with their loss, she hardly ever left Chloe's side. She wished she didn't because if Gia didn't maybe Chloe wouldn't have tried too...

Gia was pulled from her thoughts when an alarm went off. She quickly wrapped an arm around her alarmed cousin (pun _completely_ intended). She knew why loud noises got to her, it meant one of two things; her parents could be fighting or the noise could trigger her dad to have a 'blip'. Chloe's parents fought not stop, loud noises usually were involved. Whether it be yelling or doors slamming or her mom throwing things.

'Blips' are what they called the moments where Chloe's dad Chris would forget what was going on. He would think he was on the battlefield in the middle of an opp. He went berserk, thinking everyone and everything was a threat. He kept repeating the same phrase over and over "the bird fell out of the sky". After years of therapy, they still didn't know why he couldn't remember what was going on in the memory outside of his 'blips'.

When the team left the two girls began to plan what they would watch first. They kept in mind that Wanda had not seen nor most likely heard of these shows and movies before and decided to 'educate' her. They decided to start with _Teen Titans_ and then go to _Codename: Kids Next Door._ After that maybe _Powerpuff Girls_ or _American Dragon: Jake Long_ so she could relate more to the people with powers and the secret organizations.

After a few minutes of debating Bruce and Pietro entered the lounge. Gia noted that the stood at arms length and Bruce ignored the young man. "So," Bruce began, "I hate to leave you guys here by yourselves, mainly you Gia, I was able to make a compromise. Pietro is staying here with you, no matter how much I don't want him to, and I _really_ don't want him to." With this he went and kissed their cheeks and hugged them goodbye. Chloe clung to him a bit and Gia rubbed her arm.

When Bruce walked away, Chloe didn't see him, she saw her dad leaving all over again. She saw him in his gear getting ready to go somewhere around the globe and only get talk to him through a screen. All that time she spent worrying that her father would be killed came back and morphed into worry for her uncle.

Once he was out of earshot Chloe threw herself into Gia's arms, crying. She thought after her father was removed from combat she would never feel this way again unless she married someone in the military. She was wrong. "it's just like watching Daddy leave all over again!" She cried into her cousin's shoulder.

Gia began to soothe Chloe; she pet her hair and whispered encouraging words to her. Gia had comforted her before, yes, but never for this. It was usually after a nightmare or someone had something that hit too close to home. It was never about someone not coming back from combat. Chloe was little when he father was actively deployed so she never understood the gravity behind it, but now she was older and understood the risks. As children her and her brother had to be reminded they had a father.

The two sat down on the couch as Chloe cried. Pietro didn't know what to do, he had only dealt with Wanda's upsets, never anyone else's. He did what he thought could help; he ran and got a box of tissues and a chocolate bar he hid in case he got hungry and didn't feel like leaving the room.

When he came back he handed the tissues to Gia and the bar to Chloe. "Chocolate helps Wanda feel better, I thought maybe you would like it." Chloe smiled lightly and gingerly took the chocolate. Chocolate did make her feel better, but it also made her gain weight. She offered some to the two people and they both declined.

Chloe was falling asleep as she ate so Gia decided to take her to the room they were sharing to lay down for a bit. Chloe had a habit that after being emotional she slept, she should probably break it, but they had bigger fish to fry. Right now, if Chloe wanted to nap, Gia would let her nap.

She came back to the lounge a few minutes later to see Pietro standing there awkwardly. He had no idea what to do, how to go about helping Chloe. He wasn't used to other people freaking out like that, he wasn't close enough to people for them to open up.

"You like her," Pietro's eyes widened at her words, how the hell did she know? Did he make it that obvious? Pietro was trying to hide his curiosity, he couldn't call it affection yet. "I can see it in your eyes," she continued, "it's obvious to me because I'm exceptionally good at reading people. I'm sure some of the team has picked up on it, probably not Bruce, he's observant of plain hard facts. Emotions were never his strong suit, Chloe's either, must be why they get along so good together." She took a sip of her water.

After a second of Pietro sorting out his words he finally decided on what to say. "How do I not upset her? I understand she is going through a lot right now, she needs a friend. I want to be there for her, I want her to trust me, because, well, I," he sheepishly went on to explain what he did. She looked at him with a calculating look that him want to run and hide. But he knew this look, it was one he had when people talked about his sister.

Gia sighed while placing the glass of water down, "I would ask you why, but I know why. You want her to trust you,maybe because you like maybe because you want her like that." His face scrunched at her words but she continued. "You don't know how you feel, you just want to help her, but she needs to trust you first. You want her trust, so she could open up to you, to make her feel safe here. Which I guess is a good idea, but the way you went about it was shitty. You had good intentions, sure, you just didn't do it right. Honestly, if you want to get her to trust you, you gotta let her do it _on her own_." Gia didn't elaborate.

"How?" Pietro asked. He understood it wouldn't be easy, but he knew she needed help. He knew she couldn't be left like she was.

"Let her come to you, don't force her." Gia ran a hand through her hair. "Almost everything she has done has been forced. Her first words, her first kiss, her first time, her first relationship, her grades, her actions, her reactions, hell her thoughts are forced. Yours would be too if you were whopped with a belt every time you did something wrong." Gia leaned on the counter.

"What?" Pietro asked. She got beat with a belt? Who would do that?

"Don't tell her I told you this, but whenever Chloe did something wrong her mom would beat her. It was over stupid things too; like accidentally breaking a glass, or getting stains on clothes, once she got beat because she had woken her mom up because she had wet the bed. She was five, it wasn't a big deal, it wasn't even her fault, her mom wouldn't let her use the bathroom before bed because she was cleaning it. In fact her and Joey stayed over when they were like six and she brought a belt over in case she was bad." Gia looked mad at the memory. "Her mother's way of discipline was force, that's what she's used too."

Pietro looked very upset, she was beat over stupid things like that? Why would her own mother do that? He wanted to show her that she was worth more than to beat, she was worth affection.

"She's terrified," Gia continued, "she wants to make sure none of you don't like her. She's scared of you guys, it's not personal she's scared of her own shadow. She just wants to be accepted, no matter if she can't accept herself." With this Gia left the room, leaving Pietro more confused than before the conversation began.

* * *

Although Chloe loved Gia, she was an awful roommate. She just had to admit the girl wasn't used to sharing a room. Gia had stopped sharing a room with her sister when they were five, having taken up the couch at nights. She barely used her room and was used to leaving things in certain places. Now, Chloe wasn't a neat freak, but after years of putting certain things in certain places, disorder killed her. She knew if something wasn't in it's place he mother would blow a gasket.

Chloe's mother had OCD, well they both did, but her mother's case was far worse. Her mother hated when something was out of place, heck she wouldn't allow dishes to sit in the sink or dry in the drain board. Everything had to be a certain way or she would go nuts.

Chloe was not nearly as bad as her mother, but she was used to everything being spick and span. So she was fighting the urge not to clean it, except for two things, her books and her art supplies. They _never_ stayed clean. The rest of the house could be a mess, but if her books or her art stuff was messed with she got upset.

Gia had been looking at Chloe's books, which she didn't mind, but she moved some around. Chloe knew Gia would never do that intentionally, she knew how she could get, but it still bothered her. She sighed and fixed the books while hearing Gia trying to sing a full company number by herself in the shower.

Chloe decided to go and get a drink having already finished Gia's water. Normally she'd fill it up from her bathroom sink, but if she interrupted Gia, she would be upset. So she ventured out to the kitchen to see Pietro there, eating something. "Hi," she whispered.

Pietro looked up to see her standing there, "Hello," he raised his hand to wave, but grimaced. He had been training, hopefully he'd get back in the field. He had been running in a simulator when he got struck by an arrow in the space between his neck and shoulder. Stupid Clint, he had thought. Pietro thought he had gotten the bleeding to stop, but he tried to wave he could feel the blood on his shoulder.

"I can fix it," she whispered. He tilted his head and she motioned to the growing red stain on his shirt. He cursed in his native tongue, this was a new shirt too! She walked over and took the first aid kit in her hands, he had just finished stitching himself. "Can I?" She looked at him nervously and nodded.

He took off his freshly stained shirt and she began her work. She wiped the blood away carefully trying not to hurt him farther. She then sprayed disinfectant, something he had forgot, and he flinched. She apologized and he assured her she was fine. Chloe had began stitching, he looked between her soothing fingers and her face. She looked determined; she even had her tongue sticking out to the side a little. He asked her, "how do you know how to do this?"

Chloe's eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. "I learned from watching I guess. I've seen this done a million times and one time when my brother busted his head on a pipe in Gram's basement and it was only us, I did it with no problem. Then I became the family nurse; any time someone got hurt, which was a lot, I was the go to person. I even used to carry a mini First-Aid kit in my purse at all times, my siblings are always banged up somehow." She smirked at the memory.

"So you've never had proper training?" He asked and Chloe shook her head. "Well that's reassuring," he muttered without much forethought and her face fell. For a second she stopped ready to run away. "But since you've done this before I guess it make up for it." He smiled at her trying to ease her. He wanted to slap himself for that comment, but Chloe continued fixing him.

"Chloe!" Gia yelled as came into the room, not her true yell, just loud enough to get her attention. Her hair was wet and her clothes clung to her like she hadn't properly dried herself. "I need help, Japan is attacking!" She leaned in the doorway, making a face when she saw what her cousin was doing.

"I only have patches underneath my sink." Gia thanked her and she waved her cousin off. Before Pietro could ask Chloe interjected, "don't ask." Pietro was starting to hate American slang.

* * *

The team had arrived back later that night, having but a few injuries. The most banged up person was Steve, but he almost already healed to the serum in him. They didn't even use Bruce making both girls sigh in relief. Yes he was an adult and their senior, but they still worried.

To welcome them the two girls, mainly Chloe, had made a home cooked meal. It was Chloe's idea, but Gia insisted she make her "Lazy Chicken Casserole" because though she had the recipe she couldn't make it to save her life. She stood off to the side as Chloe put together two double batches and a single batch together muttering "that wasn't in the recipe".

Chloe usually didn't follow recipes exactly, she did her own thing. She had her mother's old recipes and learned they came out better if she tweaked them. Her mother couldn't cook to save her life, so she learned to cook early on so the family could eat edible food.

Pietro found it funny to watch the two in the kitchen, they went back and forth. Chloe would say something, Gia would make some comment, and Chloe would go right back at her. It was like a routine they had rehearsed countless times, but in reality they were just being themselves.

Currently Chloe tried to grab something on the top shelf of the cabinet, but even when she jumped she couldn't reach it. "Can't reach it can ya?" Chloe glared at her cousin and she handed her the spice. "You know you should grow taller."

"I should be a lot of things, but when it comes to the gene pool all I got was 20/20 vision and flexibility." Chloe shrugged and stirred the mixture in the bowl. "But I have more important things to be worrying about."

"Like being stepped on?" Gia smirked as Chloe glared at her.

Chloe scoffed and crossed her arms, "my chances of getting stepped on are the same size as you're attention span." Gia made a face and Chloe had won.

"We're back!" Tony called as the team entered the kitchen. "What are we having?"

"Chloe's own recipe, which the first two batches should be done right about now," she pointed to the oven and the timer went off. "Pietro can you set the-" Before she could finish the table was set and the two glass dishes were set on the table.

The group sat around the table eating and laughing like a family would. They all complimented Chloe on her meal, which was actually very good. It had been a while sine they had a home cooked meal, and this was a great one to get them back in to eating them. Chloe's food was just as good as her baking, something they never thought possible.

Finally after two days Tony couldn't take it anymore, "so do you two have any embarrassing stories of Brucie?" He wanted to know about stupid things his friend had done so he could make fun of him forever.

Before either of his nieces could speak up Bruce interjected. "Before either of you answer, remember I was there when you were little and have an equal amount if not more stories of you guys." The two looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation in their heads. They came to a decisions and shook their heads. "Stop doing that freaky eye-conversation thing."

Gia than said something in another language to which Nat responded. "you can speak Latin?" This girl seemed smarter than she looked.

"That's literally all she knows how to say. She can summon a demon, but can't say anything else like hello." Chloe answered for her.

The conversation continued, but Vision wasn't paying any attention to the words. He was observing the three family members, trying to understand the dynamic between them. He noticed how Bruce sat next to Chloe, with his arm on her chair, almost like a father would. Like he was trying to comfort her and/or protect her. He noted how Gia and Chloe sat close to each other but sat very differently.

Gia was sitting like she owned the place and was comfortable. She sat back in the chair and slouched a little. Chloe sat at the front of her seat with her back straight, like you would see a rich lady do. And of course Gia held Chloe's wrist in a weird way; her two pointer fingers over the inside of her wrist and the rest curled over the top.

Vision noticed that over the course of the next few days that whenever they were close enough the two would do that. It seemed like they didn't even notice it, like it was an unintentional habit. Like a mother taking care of her cub. A lot of things they did remind the android of that; they would eat each other's food but when Pietro tried to steal a cookie from Gia she almost clobbered him.

Gia would also ask if Chloe was okay, but not in a normal way. She would ask 'what's in the sky' and she would respond. When the girl was upset she would answer, 'the sky has turned to black' and Gia would get Wanda and they would excuse themselves. When everything was okay she would say 'butterflies' and they would stay and act as if nothing happened.

Vision liked how the two girls included Wanda in everything they did. He was protective over Wanda since he had saved after the battle of Ultron. He had feared she would be forgotten,but it was as if she was even more relevant.

In fact one day Vision happened to walk by Wanda's room when he heard the girls talking. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but he couldn't help but over hear. He heard Gia say, "alright Wanda I'mma show you a picture of my boyfriend's brother. But bitch don't like anything! Bitch, I swear to god if you like something," she was about to go on but Wanda assured her she wouldn't. "Good, because if I like anything Mike'll be upset, because I'm not supposed to look at this page. John stole one to many of his girlfriends."

Vision was confused once more, he thought Wanda would be upset about Gia calling her bitch or at least Chloe would stop her. Wanda didn't seem phased in the slightest. Over the next few days he heard Gia call her bitch, but she didn't react at all. Another aspect was she did not call Chloe one, in fact she tried to censor herself around her. It took Sam's prying to get the explanation Vision needed.

On the fourth day of Gia's visit is when she was questioned. They were playing a game of _Uno_ while the team watched trying to understand the game. The two girls sat on either side of Wanda with their feet over her and into each other's laps. Wanda went to ask a question when Gia warned her. "Bitch, you better not be asking if the numbers mean you get points, I'm trying to beat Chloe."

"Why'd you call her bitch and not Chloe," Sam asked before Pietro could. How _dare_ she call his baby sister that. He didn't understand why Gia would 'insult' her friend like that.

Chloe put her hand over their discarded pile so nobody would cheat and Gia grabbed her wrist and held it. Gia turned to Sam. "I had to explain this to Wanda too. Because in girl-talk, when another girl calls a girl bitch that means they're friends." Gia explained to the best of her ability, even she didn't understand it.

"And," Chlole turned to Sam who was with Steve, "if another girl calls a girl sweetie, you better run because a fight is about to break out. She doesn't call me that because I'm not fond of being called anymore curse words than I get called at home." It was true at her house her mother called her every name under the sun, but her own. She usually got called by her siblings names, which was normal, and her sister sometimes called her mom, but then her mother would call her some more _colorful_ names. Her mother usually called her P.I.T.A which meant 'Pain In The Ass' for short.

Vision who was also in the room decided to speak his concerns, "why does Gia hold Chloe's hand like that?" He wanted to know because if it was a comfort thing he could maybe do it to help. But Bruce didn't do it so he wasn't sure.

Gia went to pull her hand away, but Chloe grabbed it. She looked at her cousin, giving her the okay to tell the story. She sure as hell couldn't. "Actually Joey did it, I just picked up on how comfortable it made her so I did when I could. When Chloe was eleven, she attempted suicide; she literally died for a bit. Joey said her heart stopped for at least four minutes. He was able to bring her back obviously, but he started doing that to make sure her heart didn't stop again. I adopted it before everything happened. The night after Joey's funeral, she attempted again, and I don't know," she paused rubbing her cousins arm, "it was original supposed to make her feel better, but now it helps me feel better."

The room went silent at the confession, not knowing what to say. Chloe had what? She had tried to end her life, twice for that matter. She was so depressed she had tried to end her life on two separate occasions. Chloe was so depressed that she couldn't find a reason to live anymore. Wasn't the aspect of getting better and living her life enough to fuel her will to live? Wasn't her brother and sister a reason to keep her alive? Why didn't Bruce mention that?

The truth was Bruce didn't know, he knew about her last attempt, Gia had told him. But her first attempt he knew nothing about. Bruce knew she was depressed and suicidal, but he knew not of her almost fatal attempt on her life. Neither of them knew of each other's struggles to the full extent. In fact nobody in the family knew that their depression was inevitable, nobody knew that depression and anxiety ran in the family. Chloe had it worse because she inherited from both her mother and father.

While ignoring the concerned looks from the team they went back to playing their game. Wanda was watching, since she didn't know how to play. It was an intense game, it looked like Gia was winning until Chloe went. "Alright," she put put down a card for the respective move, "reverse to me, reverse to me, skip you, pick up two, pick up two, pick up another two, uno, draw four, uno out." Gia threw her cards on the ground and groaned in frustration. "You're the one who wanted to play." Chloe shrugged and began to shuffle the cards.

"Hey Chloe," Natasha smirked, her wheels were spinning, "are you going to have your friend over?" Just then Tony and Bruce walked in the room, Bruce stopping at the sentence. Before he could ask Nat continued, "yeah that guy we saw at the coffee shop, what was his name?" This girl needed a friend besides Gia and Wanda, another familiar face.

Chloe blushed deeply, she did not like the spotlight on her. "Oh you mean Geoff Thomas? I didn't think I could have him over, because it's not my place to ask. Besides it's not that big a deal." She tried to brush it off.

"He's your friend right that you haven't seen it literal years? I'm sure Tony won't mind and your uncle would love to see that video of your performance." Nat wanted this girl to feel safe in the tower, even if that meant making her a little uncomfortable at first.

Gia decided to step in and give her two-cents, "yeah I never got to see the video of you in _The Addams Family_ , I never got to see you in fishnet stockings." She shook her cousins arm.

Chloe felt herself blush harder, "please don't remind me about the stockings, it was forced upon me and I did not enjoy it. You weren't there when I had to explain to my family _why_ I owned a pair. That was freshman year, I don't need to see me then." Chloe remembered the conversation well, her brother was upset thinking they were for an outfit while her mother thought she was using them for a different use.

"I want to see this, now my interest is piqued." Tony said, "How did you met this Geoff?"

Chloe began to pick at her nails, "well we had theatre together and he convinced me to audition for our musical, not that I need much convincing. He was Gomez and I was Morticia, so we became really good friends." She thought back to all the scenes the two had together and the exercises they did with each other. Plus the _hours_ she spent teaching the boy to tango properly.

"How good friends were you two, did you ever kiss per say?" Tony asked while wiggling his eyebrows. Steve stood up to stop his probing. He understood she was embarrassed.

"Stage kisses don't count!" She exclaimed. "I didn't even know we were kissing until after the fact. It didn't mean anything either!" Chloe looked like she was about to panic.

Gia decided to 'help'. Yes her intentions were good, she just should have went about a different way. "Wasn't that when you're hair was gray?"

Chloe put a finger up to correct her, "it wasn't supposed to be gray. It was black for like a day _then_ because my hair doesn't hold dye it turned gray. The only reason I dyed it was because it was a pain to put in the wig cap, it was either dye it black like Morticia's or cut it enough to easily put it in the cap. But since I'm not allowed to cut my hair, we died it first. I would have cut it with pleasure, but _no,"_ granted she had her hair trimmed once since then. "I get that I donate my hair, and you need eight inches. But I'm not allowed to cut my hair past my elbows and from where it was to there was only seven inches." She huffed at the memory of the fight.

After a few minutes of going back and forth it was decided that Geoff would be invited. Chloe didn't put up much of a fight though, she really did miss him, she hadn't seen him since the end of Freshman year. She missed all the jokes he made, not at her of course, the jokes he made of the people who made fun of her. She missed him trying to get her to smile when he complimented her; he felt the need to remind people of all the good things about them. He constantly told her how good of a person she was, how she had reminded him that not all women were like his mother.

Chloe wanted to remember the good of Freshman year, not the bad. She didn't want to remember the three fights her brother won (she was the reason behind two of them) or the fact she weighed a lot less then. It was that summer when 'puberty hit Chloe like a truck' as Gia put it. She went from looking slightly like the girls in her family, meaning a small chest and a little difference between her waist and hip size, to have a busty chest, large hips, and a tiny waist. She went from slightly chunky limbs to big thighs. She had not wished for curves, only Gia did, she wanted to be shaped like Chloe and she wanted to be shaped like Gia.

"Come on Chloe it's a good idea, when have I ever let you down?" Chloe looked at her incredulously, did she want the long list or the short list? "Never mind, don't answer that."

Chloe sighed, "well, you _are_ my second favorite cousin." Chloe looked up and slightly tilted her head back and forth like she was debating on the topic.

"Be kind; rewind," Gia held her hand up. She was mock upset, though a little offended, how was she not the favorite? "I'm your best friend, how am I not your favorite cousin? It's a blood pact we go out together! I swear to god if you say my sister-"

Chloe put her hand down, "chill, it's Bobby."

"Oh," Gia softened at the confession, "oh okay. You did get a tattoo for him. I can't compete with him, he's too adorable. Plus he's British." Gia knew she had a soft spot for her cousin, he was so cute she couldn't understand how anybody could laugh at this kid.

"Isn't that the one who you helped learn to speak?" Bruce asked recalling her and Joey talking about him a lot.

Chloe nodded, "yeah he has a lot of health problems. When we go visit my Aunt Carrie I would play her old guitar for him. I would play the same songs for him and he eventually learned how to speak certain words. He can't say a lot, but I taught him a bit. It's not his fault though, he has a lot of conditions like Autism, Down's Syndrome, he's colorblind, and he has this genetic mutation that I can't pronounce, where his organs are growing at a normal speed but the rest of him is not, they are growing extremely slower. I feel bad for him." Bobby was given a few hours to live after his birth, but all these years later he was still alive, though not exactly well. He looked about the size of a nine year old despite being fourteen.

Chloe went on to explain her cousin more. "When my aunt Carrie and Bobby's father tried to get pregnant they were told not to because they both were carriers for his genetic mutation, that the baby would have a 75% chance of getting it. So they stopped trying, but a year later my aunt found out she was pregnant. He told her to abort him, but she refused. She wasn't going to kill the baby because he could be sick, what if he wasn't? He was still their child and it wasn't Bobby's fault, why should he be punished? So the words were said and he tried to make my aunt get an abortion, so they split up. She had Bobby premature, but she kept him. She raised him all by herself until she met her husband David. They got married and he legally adopted Bobby. Well, Bobby doesn't see it that way, he thinks David is his dad no matter what."

Chloe failed to mention that she had physically seen Bobby's father only once before. It was when she was around thirteen or so and they were walking across town to have lunch when they saw this guy staring at them. Chloe had been the first to see him, stopping in her tracks. He was freaking her out and staring mainly at Bobby. Soon her brother stopped and they all caught on and he started walking towards them. All six of them (Tori was back at the house) had bolted back to their grandmothers house. He had followed and 'shit had hit the fan' after that. He tried to petition for custody but he lost. Making him threaten to do it his own way, he was stopped before he could get to Bobby though. Her younger cousin James had to explain the story to the twins, he vaguely remembered the man, having been about three when when Bobby was born. But she, her brother, Bobby, not even James remembered his name. James had asked their Aunt Carrie when he was younger and she had burst into tears. So it was a silent rule to never talk or ask about him.

"I love my dad's side of the family," Chloe said, "the first time I met them they offered us tea, krimputs, biscuits, and we talked about Harry Potter for hours. They are all stereotypical British People, except my Aunt Kay when she drives. It is the funniest thing, she just yells." Chloe slipped into a British accent to do an imitation of her aunt. "You know what they say about people who drive in the fast lane? _They do no live in bloody England!"_ She went back to her regular voice, "I purposely drive with her because her commentary is amazing." Chloe thought back to all the funny things she had said over the years.

Gia's eyes lit up; she pointed at Chloe and started slightly shaking her hand. "She's the one when they visited us that drove on the wrong side of road and went 'bloody hell, I forgot I'm in the colonies!' And quick swerved to the other side of the road." Gia remembered a few years back when Chloe's family had come to visit, since they always went to England during their spring break. It was so funny seeing the Schuylers act differently to the different families. They changed how the spoke and how they acted. Plus they had to explain certain customs to both families when they were confused and/or offended.

"Do they actually call us the colonies?" Sam asked, he had only met a few people from England so he didn't know a lot about their slang.

"They do." Chloe went on, "I know this because whenever my cousins introduce us to people; whether it be friends, teachers, anyone really, they say," her accent came back, " 'these are our cousins Joey, Chloe, and Tori. You know, the crazy ones from the colonies we was tellin' you about.' " Chloe had many fond memories of the English side of her family.

It was a day or so later when Geoff entered the tower. He had come over just in time for dinner, which was pizza. He brought over the video and money for food (which he was not allowed to use). He tried to give them some money, but Bruce said "you're a college student, you need the money."

Geoff was polite and acted friendly toward everyone. He shook Bruce's hand, who was very wary of him, which nobody, not even Geoff blamed him for. When Geoff met Gia she threw her arms around him and whispered a 'thank you' in his ear. He did not know why at the time but it was for all the ways he had helped Chloe. All the compliments, taking care of her, making sure she ate, things like that. He was one of the few people at her old school who helped her out and wanted nothing in return.

All of them had money in their blood. Particularly the Schuylers since her dad was a high ranking military officer, but they all had it. Some from the trust their great-grandfather had left and organizations their grandmother had started. Sure she only got a little from each, but when you added the sum from twelve different charities it got pretty high. So many people tried to mooch off of them, but they all saw through it. Some of them used it to their advantage, but not the Schuyler siblings and Gia. They were humble.

So as they ate they told stories of their days in the theatre together, they were pretty funny, though they couldn't see Chloe doing half the stuff she did in these stories. She seemed to shy, but she was a different person back then. She had been through a lot less ordeals at the time plus she was in the theatre, her second home with her favorite people.

Speaking of her favorite people Geoff got his phone out and facetimed their two friends Brandon and Patrick. She hadn't seen them in forever because when she was a freshman they were seniors. After the musical she wasn't allowed to talk to them, which she did anyway. Additionally the two were in Virginia for college while Geoff was here in New York. So when Geoff put the camera on Chloe they both loudly went "Prince Schuyler!"

Chloe waved to them and said in a much quieter voice than Geoff used, "Tan-Man! Cinder-Pat my love!" They talked for a few about their time as the 'Tableau Crew' and soon they had to leave. they said their goodbyes and the conversation went back to a friendly tone with the group.

But a certain speedster was not participating or feeling the friendly vibes in the room. He was secretly seething with jealousy and loathing Geoff. He couldn't believe how comfortable Chloe was around him, how she smiled, it was at the ground but a smile nonetheless. She was lightly blushing, her cheeks dusted pink. Now from complete embarrassment, but from her being bashful from the compliments.

She didn't shy away from his touch like she did with everyone but her cousin Gia. Geoff had an arm lazily thrown around her; she didn't even notice when he did it. It was like they were completely comfortable around each other, like they were very close. Maybe they had dated; Chloe said she had kissed him she said. But it didn't mean anything, at least to her. She never said they had or hadn't dated.

Pietro wanted him to be the one with his arm around Chloe, to be the one who made her feel comfortable. He wanted Geoff to be jealous of him because of how close he was to Chloe. He wanted to rip Geoff's arm off of Chloe and show her how he wanted to be with her. For her to be his.

But Chloe wasn't his; he was probably the last person she wanted, next to her ex. Anyone in their right mind would never want him in a million years. He didn't deserve her, she was too sweet and kind. She was too nice and loving to have anyone in this room besides Steve, Sam, or maybe Geoff (Bruce didn't count because he was her uncle). Not him, not him, not him.

When Geoff found out not only was Gia a twin but the Maximoffs were as well he asked a few questions. He turned to the only set of twins who were both present, "which one of you is the oldest?"

Wanda sighed, they got asked this a lot. it was just another chance for her brother to rub her old-ness in her face. "We are twins it does not matter."

"It is me," Pietro smirked as smugly as possible. He loved to remind his sister that he was older, it was one of the only things he had on her besides height.

Geoff continued his questions, "did any of you realize one of you wasn't planned?" The Maximoffs and Gia's eyes bugged out; Chloe had been asked this by him before. She had a feeling he wanted a definite answer.

Gia put a finger up, "I was the buy one, my sister was the get one free." She answered smugly, she said this because her name was picked out first. The Maximoffs shrugged, they had never thought about that.

All eyes turned to Chloe who just shrugged. "My brother and I fell into the cart. As my mom says 'what happens in Vegas you carry around for nine months then nags you for eighteen years', so we were 'happy accidents'."

Sensing her discomfort Geoff asked, "did you get into Julliard?" Geoff did not realize he had slightly hit a nerve. If it had been pretty much anyone else she would have cried but this was Geoff. He was too darn sweet to be real. He had felt bad that he had stepped on her heels causing them to break so he bought her a new pair of her choice.

"Uh, I can't," she decided to show him why. She rolled up her pant leg about a foot to show her scar. She and Gia felt shivers down their spine; Chloe remembered the ordeal and Gia because she felt bad. The night before she had yelled at Chloe for losing their streak, she wasn't all that mad she was just moody. Her cycle was coming, her sister was being annoying, and she hadn't eaten in a few hours. When they had lost the streak it made her second highest be her highest, which was with her sister. She hated the fact that her last words to Chloe could have been hormone-inflicted rage that was over something as stupid as a streak.

"Holy shit!" Geoff's brain connected the dots, "that accident was you. I never knew who was in it because your name was never released to the press." He had heard about the crash and had said a prayer for the person, though he didn't know who they were at the time.

After that they turned on the movie, Chloe giving some warnings to the team. She gave one for the strobe lights because they may have problems with them like Geoff did, hence why he moved out of their stream of light. Also warning that it had a lot innuendos for a high school play and even though it seemed it Geoff did not in fact slap her butt. It was hysterical, between all the jokes and the numbers everyone's sides hurt. The lines were so funny they wondered who thought of them. Like 'oh darling there is nothing in between me and Gomez, why do you think we have two children so close in age?' (which Chloe said she made up) Plus the songs Gomez sang about his troubles (mainly Morticia saying no to sex).

One part that was funny was at the end when Gomez and Morticia are fighting and make up. Chloe moved her dress to show her fishnet clad stockings making him compliment her legs. Then they did this tango scene which showed how good of a dancer Chloe was and how flexible she was.

After the movie was over Geoff stayed for a little while longer, then had to leave. This left everyone confused, they doubted there was a curfew. So Gia asked him, "nah man," he waved her off, "I gotta pick my boyfriend up at work. We have a rule that because he works at a bar, I walk him home because he still looks feminine since he isn't done transitioning into a guy yet." Geoff shrugged and hugged Chloe goodbye. He whispered how pretty she was in her ear, not in a flirty way, but in a comforting way.

Later they all went their separate ways, Chloe, Gia, Wanda, and Natasha having a girls night. Something that Wanda had never done and the two cousins hadn't done in a while. For a moment everything seemed normal.

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 _ **Please review. I need two reviews or no updates.**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro didn't die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and didn't leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I don't like how divide they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale.**_

 _ **I'm seeing Infinity Wars on Saturday I will tell you NOTHING. I'm going to be like Doctor Strange and not give anything away even though I know the ending.**_

 _ **Warning: mentions of nightmares/terrors, PTSD, a certain soldier, Bruce and Natasha moment, mentions of assault,**_

 ** _Thank you Mcduffie145,_** ** _chimpnsocks,_** ** _abstract0118,_** ** _for reviewing. I will not update without at least two reviews, okay?_**

 ** _I don't own Marvel, Musetta's Waltz from La Boheme, RENT, Legos, Razor Scooter, the lines from Drake and Josh, Pride And Prejudice, ; only my OCs_**

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It was Gia's last night at the tower when Chloe had a night terror. Even though it was technically early morning the sun hadn't risen over the skyline, so to most people it was still the night. Like most people at this time everyone who was currently in the tower was at some stage of sleep, whether it be a light sleep or dreaming. It was quite odd for all those people with so many different problems to all be asleep at once.

Tony had passed out from exhaustion awhile ago, Wanda and Pietro were in their respective rooms dreaming away, Vision decide to get the tiny bit of rest he needed, Rhoady was asleep with the T.V on low playing some movie, Cap and Sam were off searching, Clint was with his family, Bruce and Natasha were together (they hadn't planned that they swear) Chloe and Gia were asleep in her new room.

Chloe's dreams were normally bad, she was used to that, but this was ungodly. Before everything had happened with her brother she would dream of the accident she was in in Sophomore year or one of her siblings in her place. Then when she was with her ex she dreamed of all the times her assaulted her, and after the fact she dreamed of her brother's final moments. But this dream, no nightmare, no terror, was by far the worst dream she had ever conjured in her mind. It was a combination of all three rolled into one. She couldn't tell which was which because of how fast her mind was racing.

Chloe started thrashing about, whimpering, sweating, reaching for someone who wasn't there, and crying. She was trying to beg for her family's freedom, but she was crying so hard you couldn't understand what she was saying.

Now Gia could sleep through the war, and at one point Chloe and her brother could too. So when Chloe was trashing about and kicked her harshly in the leg Gia didn't budge, but when a full fledged sob escaped Chloe's near silent pleas she bolted up. Thrashing didn't bother her she just pushed it off as her sister or one of the dogs climbing in her bed. Crying was a different story; crying was something she was not used too. Crying was seen as a weakness in the family, you cried you were weak. And Banner's weren't weak. The only one who really cried was Chloe, so when crying was heard Gia was promptly wide awake.

Gia flicked on a light and turned to her cousin, not caring that the light hurt her eyes. She saw her cousin's face; scrunched in pain, her lip was quivering, and her eyes were wet with tears. She was trembling faster than Pietro could run. She had never been this upset.

Gia tried to coax Chloe awake, little Tori had done it. She would start whining or act upset and Chloe was almost immediately awake. But Tori wasn't here and her brother wasn't there calm her. It was just Gia there to help her. She thought maybe if her Aunt Bonnie had gotten her help years ago they wouldn't be here, nut _no._ Her mother said that though their last name wasn't Banner they weren't weak. That Chloe didn't need any help, she would get over herself. And that it was most likely attention seeking, like when she didn't talk. But this wasn't attention seeking, she wasn't doing this for fun. Anyone who looked in Chloe's eyes they could see the fear as clear as day.

Gia began to talk louder, but still as softly as she could. But Chloe wasn't having it, she began to swing her arms around like she was trying to get some off of her. Her noises got louder as Gia reacted.

Now Gia didn't know if her initial reaction was the best, but she rolled with it. She had no idea what to do when it came to nightmares. So she jumped on top of her so she could get a grip on her arms. She knew Chloe would be upset if she hurt someone. Once Gia had her arms down Chloe let out a blood curdling scream that Gia had never heard before.

At this the twins and Vision came running. Thinking someone was hurt and were very confused when they saw Gia holding her down. Chloe was whimpering and begging for the force to stop while her cousin was trying to get her to wake up. She wasn't anywhere near waking.

"Can you wake her?" Pietro asked, he was concerned about her. He had heard she had nightmares, but this seemed too extreme for a nightmare. He wanted to help her, not because he liked her but because she needed it.

"It will only scare her more. If I wake her she will be forced to wake and not be able to think right." Wanda admitted sadly, she wanted nothing more at that moment to comfort her friend. But she couldn't, not right now, but she knew someone who could. "Brother, go get Bruce, he could help."

Pietro jumped at the suggestion wanting to do whatever he could. He used his super speed to get to Bruce room which was two stories higher with Tony's so they could be close to the lab. They spent most of their time there anyway.

Pietro wondered if waking up the man who turned green and bulletproof when was mad was a good idea. Then again most of ideas weren't good ideas, so he'd roll with the punches.

Pietro busted the doors open and was shocked to see Bruce and Natasha sleeping next to each other. They both jumped up leaving their content faces behind. Pietro quickly covered his eyes, he did not need that image in his head. "Uh, Chloe is having a nightmare and she will not wake up. Wanda sent me to get you. Sorry," at this he ran out of the room.

Bruce quickly jumped up quickly getting himself together. "I'm sorry," he began to roll up his sleeves. "I hate to do this, but I know her, she-"

"Bruce," Natasha put a hand on his arm, "it's fine. Chloe needs you right now. I'll be down in a few." She smiled in his direction, telling him he was okay. She understood, she was his family and he would be there no matter what. She understood that Chloe needed his help, everybody needed somebody to lean on. She would give anything to have someone as caring as Bruce jump up to help her.

But she didn't know she already had that.

Bruce raced to Chloe's room like his life depended on it. He felt that he should be right there because he hadn't been for years now. He's been far away and basically ignoring her. Pushing her to the side. He felt like he was acting worse than the people in his family.

Bruce came into the room to see Gia trying to wake Chloe with all she had. Nothing was working, Chloe was to afraid to do anything at the moment. Even in her sleep she knew that she couldn't fight this. She had tried and it didn't work.

When Gia realized Bruce had walked in she moved off of Chloe though still had a grip on her arms so she didn't lash out. It pained him to see her like this, so _lost_ and he couldn't do anything about it.

Bruce kneeled next to her and began talking to her. He didn't even know what he was saying the words just fell out of his mouth. Chloe's face was less contorted in fear, it was more awake making Gia let go. She opened her eyes and jumped up when she saw everyone around her. She was _not_ expecting all these people around her.

Chloe opened her mouth but she was so helpless she couldn't speak. Her mouth could only open and close like a fish. The rest of her body wasn't working properly either, she nearly wet herself she was so scared. The most surprising thing was that her good leg was numb and her bad leg felt fine. It was always the other way around.

Chloe was so shaken she couldn't properly communicate words, so she went back to something she hadn't done in years. It was also a comfort, reminding her of a time when the world was better. She decided to use ASL to talk to her uncle and cousin. She asked what happened and Bruce explained she had a nightmare.

Then Chloe asked why everyone was there with her to which Gia responded with, "you screamed girly, we couldn't just leave ya." Chloe blushed and began to sign an apology but Gia scolded her lightly. "Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. I'm sure if had the choice you wouldn't be havin' this nightmares. I would to if I went through half of what you went through. If it wasn't for Bruce here you'd probably still be asleep."

Chloe signed a thank you to her uncle, something that came to her. She was a polite person and it was tradition in the theatre that after a performance you motion to the people behind the scenes than you sign a thank you. "I didn't know you guys knew sign language," Nat said leaning on the door.

Bruce turned to see Natasha in the hallway, already looking impeccable in his opinion. She was smirking while leaning on the door. "Yeah," he replied bashfully, "both of my parents are deaf. My mom was since she was born and my dad lost his in combat. My mom can read lips pretty well, my dad struggles more, but they both have questionable vision so we all learned because it's easier to see hands then lips." Bruce shrugged, it wasn't that big a deal to him. His siblings had learned when they were older but he had picked up from seeing them as a child. So when it came down to learning the language he had no problem.

Gia smiled an all knowing smile that made Chloe nervous. Gia tended to smile that kind of smile when she knew something that somebody else didn't. "I know you usually calm down with your guitar," Gia stood next to Bruce, "but I think this will do." She bent down and from underneath her bed pulled out a guitar. Chloe's eyes bugged out of her head, Gia had brought her guitar? She thought it was back in California "Your sister brought it to Jersey and gave it to me 'cause she knew I would see you before she could. I was going to leave it on your bed when I left, but I _guess_ you can use it now."

Chloe took the guitar from her cousin and set it on her lap. She strummed it and noted that the A, E, and G chords were tweaked with. She quietly muttered about her sister messing with it, cringing at how rough her voice sounded. She tuned it by ear, something that came after two years of practice. She would play a note than twist the nob and check to see if it was right.

Everyone watched with rapt attention; it was fascinating to watch her tune the guitar. Her brow was creased and her tongue stuck out to the side a little, almost like a little kid coloring. Once she finished tuning, she began to play _Musetta's Waltz_ though it was from the show _La Boheme_ she knew it from RENT.

Pietro and Vision began to leave at the same time, not on purpose they just decided they weren't needed. Bruce and Natasha left as well. When Wanda tried to leave the two Gia pulled her back and pushed her to sit on the bed. "You've joined the Sisterhood," was all Gia said.

Once the door closed Bruce ran his hands over his face, out of all the things in this world he wasn't expecting that. He didn't realize how far down Chloe had swam. She was so lost in her thought, her fears, she didn't even realize how much she was hurting. Chloe didn't see how much pain she was in and that hurt Bruce more than anybody realized.

Natasha put a hand on his shoulder, "she will be alright." Comforting wasn't her thing, but she saw how he cared for Chloe and used that as an example.

"Natasha is right," Vision tried to console his teammate. "After a little bit of therapy and maybe some medications so will be better. As of now she shows signs of anxiety, depression, PTSD, Survivor's guilt, anorexia, and possible bulimia."

Natasha went to scold him for being so blunt, but Bruce interrupted. "It's fine, he's right. He's a newly made droid and he's already doing better than my sister." Bruce didn't even realize he was being so cold to his sister, and at this point he didn't care. She should be able to take a portion of all the criticism she gave, let alone all she gave to Chloe.

Pietro felt the need to offer his help, sure Bruce might not want it, but it would be wrong not to. "I know you kind of, no definitely, hate me right now, but if you need me to do anything I will." He was willingly to make amends for what he had done.

"Thanks," Bruce muttered and the group disparated. It had been a long night and the following day and night would be just as long. Though as they walked away they could hear Chloe and Gia singing some song to Chloe's guitar.

The next morning every occupant in the tower's residential area decided to see Gia off, her flight was leaving in a few hours. Bruce apologized for not spending more time with her to which Gia said, "I didn't come to see you anyway." Bruce looked mock offended and Gia stuck her tongue out at him. She was just joking to lighten the mood, for Chloe's sake.

Just as Gia was about to leave Chloe threw her arms around her. "I love you, Wise Girl," she whispered into her hair.

Chloe had trouble vocalizing affection; since her mother never said 'I love you' to her and hugging wasn't normal in her house. The first day back to school freshman when she and her brother came home her sister jumped into her arms yelling, 'C! I missed 'ou, no more 'cool now?' It was one of the few times that she didn't need a hug but was given one.

"Hate you, Seaweed Brain," Gia said back in a singsong voice, she knew her cousin knew what she was leading to.

"You're the bane of my existence," Chloe retorted back.

"I hope you step on a Lego."

"I hope you cut your leg on a Razor Scooter."

"I hope you go bald!"

"I hope they cancel Oprah!"

Gia pulled Chloe back so she could look at her, "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"

"You callin' me a liar?" Chloe put her hands on her hips.

"I ain't callin' you a truth-er!"

"Well, sorry!"

"Well, sorry doesn't sweeten my tea!" Gia yelled out causing both girls to giggle. That was a little 'routine' they did when 'I love you' or 'I hate you' was said.

"I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed that I got all of those references." Bruce admitted. He remembered the lines from the show _Drake And Josh_ which aired when he was younger. He watched it with his nieces and nephews along with a multitude of other shows.

Then Gia left and Chloe tried her hardest not to cry. Gia was someone she was very close to that she couldn't see very often. Gia was the one who she leaned on when the long lonely nights got to her. Gia was the one who threw her a life raft when her sea of despair was drowning her. Gia was her best friend and now she was gone.

But Chloe wasn't alone, Wanda was there, slowly creeping up. She starting to become very close to her, they were becoming extremely close friends. Chloe needed that, she didn't have many friends in general let alone close friends. They leaned on each other, listening to each other's problems and stories and gave each other advice. Mainly Chloe to Wanda on her feelings towards Vision (despite not being very romantically involved in her life she apparently gave good advice).

Not five minutes after Gia left she texted in the group chat the girls created: 'the Sisterhood must reunite, whether by peace or by bloodshed it matters not.' Making both girls laugh out loud.

Unfortunately, for Chloe, Wanda had to train after that, leaving her alone. It had been decided that when someone couldn't watch her she would go sit in the lab with her uncle, but she couldn't since he wasn't here. Tony was away setting up the Avengers base where they would be moving to and she did not want to go watch them train. She couldn't watch a lot of violence as is, especially if she knew the people fighting. She could watch movies with fighting because she knew it was fake, but that was different. She had learned a lot about stage combat in theatre and she did special effects make-up.

As a compromise she decided to get some stuff out of her room and just sit in the lounge or the kitchen where she could be seen. She decided to add some touches to some of her artworks she had been working on. She had about a million pieces she hadn't finished, though she did have a few she did finish. One was a painting that she was supposed to give Julia for her tenth birthday. She's twelve now.

Chloe had been sitting there in the lounge for awhile and was in her own little world. She was sitting with her legs crossed with her sketchbook in her lap and her supplies laying around her on the couch. She was hunched over looking at her sketchbook with an intent look. Her brow was furrowed, her nose scrunched, and her tongue was slightly sticking out to the side. She was working on a oil pastel picture of a whale breaching the surface of the sea.

She was so immersed in her work she didn't notice the elevator door open and three people walk in. She already knew two of the people Steve and Sam but the third person she didn't know, well she wouldn't have seen him anyway. She didn't notice the two men greet her, multiple times. She didn't even have earbuds in!

Sam made the mistake, everyone, even he knew in hindsight he shouldn't have done it. He didn't really think it through, he thought that maybe something was wrong and went to check on her. He said "Chloe," and _lightly_ (he stresses the lightly) touched her shoulder to get her attention. He didn't mean to scare her.

Chloe yelped a high pitch yelp that was more of scream than anything. It was a noise of fear, surprise whatever you wanted to call it. Her head snapped up like a demon's would and she jumped so hard that she propelled herself up off the couch, into the air, and then to the floor. With a dull thud and her version of a grunt (it was high pitched since she was still scared). She mumbled something that sounded like, "oh, _Pride And Prejudice_."

"Sorry," Sam said and at the same time all three peered over the couch. "You good?" Chloe was sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging them to her chest.

"Yeah, it's cool, just give me a minute, I get scared easy." Chloe looked up and saw the new face. "Uh, hi," she was not expecting someone new. She was barely used to the people in the tower now let alone the ones who currently weren't here.

FRIDAY spoke up before anyone could say anything, "Ms. Schuyler," she pronounced it shoe-ler, "I detected an increase in your heart rate and breath intake in a short amount of time, do you wish for me to inform your uncle?"

Chloe turned her head around and looked over every inch of the room as she answered. "I'm fine, and my last name isn't 'shoe-ler', it's not 'shy-ler', it's not 'sk-oi-ler', not even 'schooler', it is pronounced like Skylar. If you're going to insult me do it properly." She mumbled the last bit. She was tired of people getting her last name wrong, everyone got it wrong. Even when she lived in Hawaii and every word had apostrophe and majority vowels; the kids with Hawaiian names had theirs pronounced correctly, but not her or her brother. She had heard many different attempts over the years.

"My apologizes Ms. Schuyler," FRIDAY apologized.

Chloe stood up to greet the new person, he looked extremely familiar, like someone she had seen before. But he also looked different, he looked, lost. He was searching for something, a threat, a weapon, an escape plan maybe. She knew that look, her dad had that look when they went somewhere new. "Hi," she greeted quietly with a small wave, "I'm Chloe Schuyler. I'm Bruce's niece; nice to meet you." She didn't offer her hand, not because he was shy but because she could tell he was uncomfortable. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his shoulders were hunched. He stood as far away from Sam and Steve as possible.

"I'm Bucky," he said quietly and she gave a small smile. She began to pick up the stuff that had went flying when she jumped. Her blush had previously started to fade but when she started picking up her works she blushed at the memory.

Steve began talking softly to Bucky, but he noticed a paper of Chloe's that had fallen beneath the couch. He felt bad because he thought it was his fault she was scared so he picked it up and held it out to her. She looked up from the floor and stood to grab it. "Thank you," she whispered with a smile as she took the drawing.

"Is that Captain America?" Sam asked from behind her making her jump again. She blushed and so did Steve to a lesser extent.

"Uh, yeah," she pushed her hair behind her ears, "it was supposed to be for Julia's tenth birthday. She did a WW2 project and thought she was an _expert_ on the Howling Commandos. So I made it like a comic book for her since she loves comic books. I didn't finish it in time for her tenth birthday, or her eleventh, and she's been twelve for three months now and I just finished it. It's completely made out of dots. There were _so many dots."_ It was a cool picture it was of Captain America throw his shield forward. It looked so life like it looked like the shield was going to leave the page, but the best part was the edges of the shield and cap were like splashes of water. "It's not my best work, but this is my sixth attempt so she'll have to deal with it."

"How is this not your best work?" Steve asked. By now all three had crowded around the drawing and were extremely impressed. He could have never drawn this in a million years. Chloe tried to hide her face as she pulled the picture back to put it away. Steve decided to change the subject, "where's your uncle?"

"He went to drop Gia off at the airport," Chloe answered solemnly. She missed Gia very much, she was very dependent on her. "I was thinking of making you guys this steak slider thing, I don't know what it's called. All I know is my brother loves it because it's all protein." Chloe knew that people who worked out a lot liked a lot of protein, her brother included. "It's one of the few things he eats when he's bulking."

"Sure, and what do you mean by bulking?" Steve said. Some beef sounded good right now. And what was bulking?

"Well for like 9 months of the year my brother only eats protein, veggies, and fruits. No carbs, at all. He eats like 350 grams of protein a day and zero carbs. It's so he can be as muscular as possible. The other three months are the holidays and my aunt is a baker and you can't just _not_ eat her sweets." It was true, her aunt made the best cookies.

"I heard sweets," Pietro ran up behind her. Chloe once again yelped and jumped a few feet in the air. Her blush that was finally going away returned. "Sorry," Pietro apologized sheepishly. He wanted to slap himself for making her uneasy, yet _again._ His goal was to make her comfortable, not scare her.

Chloe pushed her hair behind her ears, "it's cool. I'm going to get started cooking," she hurried off into the kitchen and Wanda followed. The two were always together and it made Pietro a bit jealous that his sister had fund a friend so quickly. Then he would see they laughing together and the jealousy faded into happiness. It was nice to see his baby sister smile and laugh with someone else, who wasn't himself or a droid.

Chloe had begun teaching Wanda how to cook her recipes. Wanda was very happy with this, she didn't know how to cook meals, she just knew how to heat up food. She also learned how to spice things; spices cost money they didn't have on the streets, so on the rare occasion that got some sort of meat they ate it just cooked. When Chloe heard this she looked offended and simply said, "though I don't look it, I am fifty percent Italian and is uncle B is ninety nine. I'm 95 percent sure garlic and oregano was mixed in with my baby food. And wine with my formula." She shrugged and continued mixing spices.

Everyone who was on the team and was in the tower was in the kitchen watching Chloe make their dinner. "Wait, how are you both majority Italian but he doesn't have an Italian last name?" Sam asked. He didn't care he was eavesdropping in on their conversation, he was curious.

"Well, my great grandfather died when my grandfather was little and his wife remarried a man with the last name Banner and my grandfather took it. If he didn't our last name would be Barilotti. And yes before you ask we are stereotypical Philly Italians, we are loud, we talk with our hands, every Sunday we go to church and eat pasta with our dinner, and every Christmas we have _Festa dei sette pesci_ or the Feast Of The Seven Fishes." Chloe had the answer to this question memorized, she was asked about it a lot. And than she got 'what is a South Philly Italian'? "And Italians who live in Philly we're just not as blunt and we just talk different and love cheesesteaks. Oh, and it's gravy not tomato sauce." That last part had gotten her into some serious debates. She was Italian, it was gravy!

So Chloe left the meat to soak up the spices and began making her Mac and Cheese. She preheated the oven which made everyone confused, why would she need to bake Mac and Cheese? She made homemade Mac and Cheese, not the box kind the kind where it's mostly cheese, and then put it in the oven. Chloe did this to make it crispy on top but didn't add breadcrumbs so there weren't as many carbs.

Chloe put the steak sliders in the oven and began to clean up. But Pietro stood up and said he would, she had cooked so he would clean. She just blushed and nodded; what was with her and blushing? Then her uncle had returned and asked what smelled good. "I made these steak sliders, I don't know what they are all I know is Joey loves them." Bruce smiled because this was the first time she had brought up her brother and didn't cry.

"Chlo', Joey eats anything, no he _inhales_ everything," Bruce teased back. He was trying to make her remember her brother in a good way. This case being the way he ate like he had never eaten before. Since he was an athlete Joey metabolized his food fast and was always hungry. Plus he already had a big appetite. She shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head as if to say 'you're right'.

Rhoadey smiled and began to chuckle. "Wait, I just got it, Chloe and Joey rhyme because they're twins!" He laughed and everyone gave him a 'really' look.

Bruce turned and gave the colonel a look. A very incredulous look, "yeah it's a rule in my family, twins names rhyme. It was cute for a while."

Chloe gave him a look, "what are you talking about? It was never cute, do you know how many times I got referred to as my brother or our names combined? Then we think someone sneezed and we say 'bless you'. What's worse is we don't even look alike! Then if Gram wanted me I'd have to wait until she got down the list of her children then grandchildren. And the farther down the list you are the more screwed you are." Chloe pointed to Bruce and began rattling off names like her life depended on it. They didn't realize how fast she could talk.

Just as Chloe was about to take the food out of the oven the group was called for a debriefing for a mission, which they would all be needed for. Soon the team had left and it was just her and Bucky in the kitchen, not that she minded really. He kind of freaked her out and it wasn't because he was the Winter Soldier. She didn't even know he was him. It was because he reminded her of her brother.

Bucky had an extremely similar build as him, the muscles fit for a god, the long legs, strong arms and everything in between. Bucky was just six inches shorter and had longer hair, had blue eyes, not to mention the metal arm she hadn't seen. (Although to be fair Joey had tried to grow his hair out, but their mom wouldn't let him.) They had the same intimidating build that sent most people running, but Chloe couldn't run. She knew her brother would never hurt her and Bucky looked to hurt to hurt. The look in his eyes showed a man who had been through to much, seen to much, had more than enough pain in his lifetime. She could tell he would rather be in pain than cause pain. She knew that look because she had a similar but slightly less intense version in her eyes.

Chloe attempted to lift the dishes out of the oven but her arms were shaking to much. She cursed her lack of upper body strength when she saw Bucky take the dish out of his hand to lift it to the counter. With his left hand and no glove. She was about to ask if he was okay, but then she saw the glint of his metal hand. "Thank you," she smiled at him but he just looked confused.

Chloe had a feeling that they would be leaving so she wrapped up most of the food to go. She also had a feeling that Bucky ate a lot she she left a decent amount for him. She left herself some Mac and Cheese since she didn't eat beef. Soon her uncle and some of the team came to say goodbye. Someone mentioned sending her to Clint's house, but she put her foot down. "I'll be fine here, I have FRIDAY and Bucky who are both more than capable to help me."

"Yeah, but what if Bucky relapses?" Rhoady said bluntly making Sam hit him. Bucky put his head down in shame, he did have a point.

Chloe crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, "you guys would leave me alone with uncle B and when he gets angry he turns green and destroys things. I'm sure he wouldn't purposely hurt me; a relapse isn't his fault. If he does I can hide and I'm _very_ good at hiding." Everyone was kind of shocked that shy and quiet Chloe would stand up for someone she just met. Let alone talk back. Why wasn't she scared of him like most people were? Granted he could squash her like a bug but so could anyone in the room. Everyone had done things they weren't proud of, why should they be judged on what they cannot change? It was clear that Bucky was just scared and he needed to feel welcome. This was not doing it.

So it was decided that the two would stay together, though people were wary. So the team left with majority of the food Chloe cooked leaving just enough for the two. She offered to make something else for him since he finished his food no problem, but he said he was fine. He stayed with her because he didn't want to be alone, and neither did she.

Bucky was sure that night that Chloe was repulsed by him so he tried to leave. But as he stood she said, "you can stay, you aren't bothering me any." He turned to face her. She was sitting similar to the way she was earlier; her legs were crossed, but her hands were in her lap. She was picking at her nails, "I don't have any idea went you went through, no clue whatsoever. But I know what's it's like to be alone with your thoughts, and it sucks. Nobody should have to listen to themselves beat themselves down to the ground. Why don't we watch a movie or talk?" She looked at him, pleading.

Bucky sat back down, but a seat or two closer to her. She turned to face him. "Aren't you scared of me?" He was quiet when he asked this and Chloe was surprised. She blinked a couple of times as she processed this question.

"I'm scared of everyone honestly," she answered playing with the ends of her hair, "I've been hurt to many times by too many different types of people to pick certain types. But I know not all of them are bad. Yes they maybe be scary but they're not always malicious. Some people hurt with realizing they are hurting others, it's not their fault. So yes I'm scared, but you haven't given me a reason to be terrified. I know that look in your eyes, my dad has it. You've seen so much that you're brain is on overdrive and you feel like your trapped in a room pointing a gun at someone you love while a voice is telling you to pull the trigger. And at one point you listened, maybe you listened or you had no choice. But now you regret it, that's the key point. You know what you did was wrong and you want to change it."

"More than anything," he whispered.

"That's the point, you regret it. That's what tells me you aren't hurting people because you want to, that if you could redo it, you wouldn't do it." Chloe looked at him and smiled, trying to help him feel better.

Chloe had hit the nail on the head, she couldn't be more right. He felt so much regret it sometimes physically hurt him, it was hard to carry. He listened to that voice, not because he wanted to, but because he needed to. He never wanted to hurt anyone, not even during the war when he was fighting Nazis and they were freaking Nazis! He just wanted to be Bucky, not the Winter Soldier who killed because he was told to. He didn't want any of this, he wanted to be himself. He didn't want to be a cold blooded killer who killed for no reason. He wanted to fight back, fight to prove he wasn't the monster he truly was.

"How do you know all this? He asked softly. She seemed too young to know about stuff like this, she couldn't be more than in her early twenties. She shouldn't have to know all about this stuff.

She looked up at him, she was about a foot shorter than him. "When my dad came home when I was tenish he had severe PTSD. My mom's way of dealing with things is to hide it, eventually you'll forget about it and it will be fine. But you can't do that; not with anything, not with mental illness. When he started getting violent, I learned some stuff to help him out. I figured it would be better to help him than to have him so scared he would grab his gun." Chloe looked down and shrugged her shoulders. She did it because it was the right thing to do, not because he was her father. "Plus I used some tactics with myself after my brother-" she stopped and tried not to cry. She told him the story, and he sat there with an unreadable face. She didn't know if it was good or bad. "I'm sorry, that's nothing compared to what you went through-"

Bucky stopped her by hugging her, something he hadn't done in years. "You're fine, you went through a lot too." He whispered. She froze for a second but then returned the hug, she was not used to this and neither was he. Both of them were used to negative physical contact, not a comforting hug.

They broke apart and looked at each other, it was Chloe who broke the silence. "So no offense, but I'm low key supposed to hate you because you're from Brooklyn and my family hates the Dodgers." After she explained that the team was now the Los Angeles Dodgers he smirked, the closest thing to a smile. "We don't really like New York at all."

Bucky looked at her, "where are you from?" He could only think of one place that hated New York and that was Philly, but she didn't seem like a city girl. She jumped to much at noises to live in a big city.

Chloe pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, "well, I lived in Ocean City New Jersey 'til I was ten, then I lived in Hawaii for almost two and a half years, then I lived in California, now here. All though, my grandparents were born and raised in Nor'eastern Philly so I have a lot of their tendencies." She was very proud about living in New Jersey, it was important to her. New Jersey was where her family, mainly Gia, Popples, and Jamie were. Hawaii was where she learned to surf and where Tori came into her life. California was where Joey was, in the back of Our Lady Of Peace's cemetery, underneath a tree, away from everything else where he liked it. So much may have happened in her life but New Jersey was her home, no matter how much her family didn't like it.

* * *

By the time the team had gotten back to the tower they were damn near keeling over. They were tired and worn and all scuffed up. They had to use every resource they had, that meant a code green. So Bruce was very exhausted. He was ready to do what he normally did after a code green: eat enough for three and sleep for an entire day. The Other Guy took up a lot of Bruce's energy as is, but for him to come out took a hell of a lot more.

Bruce decided to go check on Chloe before he did his post-code green routine. He hoped she was okay, FRIDAY had said the two were fine and were asleep as of almost an hour ago. He felt more at easy since she was alright and had eaten as FRIDAY added. So they finally got done debriefing and were free to do as they pleased. Bruce decided to go find his niece along with Wanda and her brother followed. She had been reading her books and was confused on a few things and needed to rant about something that happened. Steve tagged along to check up on Bucky.

They were told that the pair were in the lounge, and just not the fact they weren't awake. They were asleep and Bucky had wrapped his arms around her. They were not expecting such closeness from two people who didn't like touching. They also weren't expecting the content looks of peace on their faces. Chloe and Bucky didn't look uncomfortable mentally or physically in the slightest, they looked so peaceful.

It was Bruce who had broke the peace, he tapped Bucky's arm. Steve was about to stop him for fear of Bucky lashing out, but he just slowly opened his eyes. He looked at Bruce in confusion, but not alarm. He knew who Bruce was but he was so foggy he didn't realize what was going on. "Hey," he said calmly, "that's my niece."

Bucky's head turned to Chloe and his eyes widened. He was snapped awake quicker than he had ever been before, unfortunately waking Chloe is the process. She jumped and landed on the ground with a thud. Her squeak was high pitched as they usually were. "Where's the fire?" She tried to steady her breathing, she was mouthing words to soothe herself. When she saw Bucky she had thought it was her brother for a second, but she knew it couldn't be. He was dead.

"Did you two-?" Steve began blushing like a madman. He knew Bucky was a player way back when, but this was kind of unlike him. He hadn't been here a day there was no way he put moves on a girl that quickly. Plus no when he was so close to her family members. But his friend had changed; maybe he would. He hoped not, Chloe was to innocent for all that. Plus, she wouldn't feel comfortable with that.

Chloe blushed, since she was pale it made her look like she had been painted red. "No, no, we just fell asleep talking, I swear." She tilted her head forward, her hair hiding her blush. She looked ready to run away; her legs were pulled to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them for dear life. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whispered, not to Steve or to Bucky but to her uncle. She had probably embarrassed him in front of his friends, she had made it seem like her and Bucky-

Bruce sat down next to Chloe, "it's okay, you don't have to apologize." She looked up at him, but then buried her face in her knees. "Embarrassing stuff happens, it's life." He continued to comfort her and she slowly relaxed.

Chloe offered to make them all something to eat, since they just got back from a taxing mission. She could tell her uncle was tired, she knew him. She didn't get him time to answer she just got up and walked to the kitchen. Cooking, baking, drawing, reading, and playing music calmed her. So did sleep, but then she had nightmares and that didn't help. She began to make simple sandwiches, well for her family. Everyone in her family but herself ate a lot, they metabolized food fast. So a sandwich in her house was filled with a lot of filling. Bread may have filled you, but it's what's on the inside that counts.

So she made sandwiches for the people in the kitchen than for the rest of the team who had showered first. She ran out of meat so she made peanut butter and jellies. But it was a Triple Decker one where the middle slice had jelly on both sides and the other two had the peanut butter. And she wasn't stingy on either, it had so much filling it stuck to the roof of your mouth.

By the time Sam got to the kitchen there were only Peanut Butter and Jelly left, and he was upset about that. So he decided to make it awful for the team, they always forgot about him. He didn't mean to mess with Chloe. Sam complained about having crusts on his sandwich, so she cut them off the sides. Then he complained that there were still some on the edges, Nat whacked for being a brat.

At the time Chloe didn't know why she got so angry, but she did. She picked up the sandwich and bit off each of the edges. She put the sandwich back on his plate, "there, happy?" She put her hands on her hips dramatically, "gosh, my sister isn't this whiny and she's seven." She raised her eyebrows and Sam took a bite of the sandwich not wanting to upset her.

"You're scary when you're mad," Sam said with a mouthful of sandwich. Then began to try to lick away some of the peanut butter from the roof of his mouth.

Chloe huffed and rolled her eyes, "tell that to my brother, every time I yell at him he just winds up laughing because I'm so much shorter than him. Then I stand on a chair and yell at him, which makes it even worse!"

Chloe then excused herself to go lay down, since she wasn't feeling well. Her stomach hurt like hell, her head was killing her, she was achy all over, she felt like she weighed a million pounds, and she was bloated. What she didn't know was she was getting her period for the first time in months.

So she laid down, but she couldn't sleep. Not because she had just woken up, but because she was alone. Every night she had been here there was someone in the room with her: Wanda, Gia, Uncle B, Bucky. She was so used to when she was in California her night started off by herself doing homework until her sister came in asking to lay with her. They probably should have stopped in, but when she didn't she woke up screaming from a night terror. So Tori would play with her hair until she fell asleep and by sometime Joey would scoop them up and take them downstairs to sleep on the couch. It the comfiest thing Chloe had ever used, it was accidentally over stuffed and her mom had gotten in on sale for a temporary use and they all made sure it stayed. So Tori would lay between them and they would spend the rest of the night together.

It was then Chloe realized she had no one playing with her hair and no one to scoop her up to be closer. She wasn't going to be comforted by her brother when she got upset. She wasn't going to hear his stupid jokes that at one point she would slap him if she heard another one, but now she wanted to hear them again. She was all alone.

And then Chloe began to cry.

* * *

 _ **Please at least three reviews.**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, rape, abuse, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I don't like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale.**_

 _ **I'm saw Infinity Wars last Saturday I will tell you NOTHING. I'm going to be like Doctor Strange and not give anything away even though I know the ending. Though I will say I am very shookth because {insert spoilers here}.**_

 _ **Warning: mentions of nightmares/terrors, PTSD, a certain soldier, body hate, cheating, alcohol use, drug use, some weird things children born in the late 90s/early 2000s did (I should know I was one of those chillin's), the made-up games she talks about are the games me and my weirdo friends made-up, Chloe and Pietro fluffiness,**_

 ** _Thank you_** ** _Snapplecrackles,_** ** _chimpnsocks,_** ** _Mcduffie145,_** ** _Erudessa-gabrielle,_** ** _for reviewing._**

 ** _I don't own Marvel, Cinnamon Buns, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure, The Three Little Pigs, Victoria's Secret, Junior's, Manco and Manco, ;only my OCs_**

* * *

Not even twenty four hours after the last mission the team was once again called on a mission. This one was supposed to take three days tops. Three days where it was Chloe and Bucky and during the day the movers who were moving the team's stuff to the new base. At night there were people all about and it made the two uncomfortable. But either way Chloe would offer them water and make them lunch. To which one of the guys said, "you must be Italian," and the two made conversation.

Nighttime was a completely different story, both of them had nightmares even if they got sleep. Chloe and Bucky hadn't slept as well in a long while as they did that night. So one night when Bucky has woken from a nightmare Chloe comforted him and they once again accidentally fell asleep.

It became a routine, laying together. Sometimes Chloe woke up in the morning by herself or sometimes in the middle of the night by herself. It was never the other way around.

After six days of constant worry the team was finally heading back in two days, but to the base where the two would meet them. They packed their stuff and moved in.

Unbeknownst to Chloe her uncle had been thinking again. He had Tony design it the way she would like. Her bed by the window looking at a amazing view, a proper guitar stand for Nessie (yes she had named her guitar), a canopy bed with see-through purple silk hanging down, a desk _and_ a drawing table.

Chloe knew this was her uncle's doing, so she decided to do something for him. She had remembered Nat telling her that Bruce said he missed their family Sunday's (dinner, not the church and getting drunk on wine, just the dinner). Chloe just so happened to know how to make authentic Italian cuisine so she worked some magic. She convinced (Bucky to get) some workers to pick her up some ingredients and supplies. If she was doing this it was going to be by hand, none of that packed and boxed crap. Might as well go big or go home.

Chloe had Bucky help her with the pasta presser and some mixing. But she mostly did it herself, all from scratch. No boxes and the only thing she used from a can or jar was the tomato paste to make the _gravy_ and a jar of minced garlic (that was to much work to do by hand). Chloe started the day before they came home and stayed up all night and cooked into the next day. It was mostly all prep work and she actually cooked everything only a few hours before.

But the time the team got make they had about an hour before dinner was ready. That mission may have been long, but that hour they had to wait for the food seemed so much longer. They looked like zombies walking through the tower, but 'woke up' when they smelled the highly seasoned aroma from the kitchen. The food looked so good and they couldn't wait. The only think that was missing was wine, but Tony quickly covered that base.

So they all sat down, Chloe explained what each thing was (having to stop every once in a while because she started spewing Italian), and the wine was poured. The two family members didn't take any, Chloe didn't drink and neither did Bruce, plus The Other Guy didn't like alcohol.

Finally the began to eat, the food melting in their mouths. They must have died and gone to heaven because this shouldn't be legal. Sam was the first to say something, "Chloe are you single, because I will marry you right now if you cook this again."

Chloe blushed as red as the _gravy_ in front of her. "The _gravy_ is my Grams recipe the rest is all mine." The group continued to praise her as they ate, even Vision trying some. He didn't know much about food or their customs but he knew enough to know that this was important to them.

By the end of the meal nobody could move because they were as stuffed as the pasta shells Chloe had made. All thanking Chloe for the amazing meal. She blushed and said she had forgot to make dessert, which didn't matter because nobody had room. Then she tried to clean up, which she was scolded for. She cooked, they cleaned.

By then Chloe had fallen asleep curled up next to her uncle. She had been up awhile and had finally gotten a normal sleep schedule. She looked peaceful cuddling his arm like that with a smile on her face. He hated to move her but he then carried her to her room to sleep.

It was the end of July when Pietro finally got Chloe to trust him. It took a while to build but it all started with Cinnamon Buns. Chloe had found the brand her grandmother insisted on using, she hadn't had them in forever since the brand was east coast based. She had been so excited to make them, but she burnt them. She teared up a bit, not because they were burnt but because of all the memories that went along with them. She offered them to everyone, which was where Pietro came in.

Later that night Chloe decided to have just one more, they were to damn good to have just one. So Chloe snuck out to get one, cue Pietro. When entering the kitchen Pietro was standing there and they smiled at each other. She went to grab a pastry but they were gone. "Hey, do you know what happened to them?" She pointed to the spot where they had last been.

Pietro turned to her, the evidence was on his face and his chewing mouth. He wiped his face and then with a mouthful started, "well you see, the thing about that is-" He was about to apologize when Chloe assured him he was fine. He didn't believe her; her voice said fine but her face said she was disappointed. Then he remembered something Tony had said something that could make it up. Who knew he's listen to Stark at all? "I know how to make it up to you."

It took some convincing, because Chloe had serious trust issues and she didn't want to sneak out. But something inside of her told Chloe she could trust him. Chloe always got 'vibes' from people, whether they were good or bad. It meant she had a feeling of what kind of person they were. She had always been right in those feelings and this feeling said Pietro meant well. Plus, she actually enjoyed his company (and not just because of his face).

Pietro scooped Chloe up and ran. It reminded her of being on the Jersey Boardwalk and going on all the rides. The rush of wind, her stomach had butterflies from the speed, and her hair whipping around, thank god it was braided. Before she had known it they were at the destination, that ride was shorter than _Kingda Ka_ at _Six Flags._

"A bakery?" Chloe asked looking at small building. It seemed quaint or a hole in the wall type place. The outside of the structure was made of brink and the inside seemed happy and cheerful. In all seriousness it reminded Chloe of the brick house from _The Three Little Pigs._

Pietro ran a hand through his hair sheepishly, "I figured since I ate your last," he paused trying to find the right English word, making him more flustered, "treat, I'd buy you something. Tony said it was a seven/twenty four place and I wanted to try it."

"You mean twenty four/seven?" Chloe asked and he awkwardly smiled. Ignoring how she felt, Chloe took up his offer and followed him inside. They each got something, her a fudge brownie and he got a slice of pie. They sat down and began to eat. It was quiet for a moment, but than Chloe broke the silence. "So what's Sokovia like?"

Pietro stopped mid bite, not expecting that. Nobody ever asked about Sokovia if they didn't have too. It was usually just for small talk and Pietro could tell they didn't care. But he could tell Chloe was interested. Nobody really cared about this tiny country that was going toward a revolt or something along those lines. People automatically became frightened when they found out that he was about of protest, but they were not violent, sure there was anger and yelling, but they left when it got to violent. Simply because he didn't want Wanda to get hurt, he had no problem getting hurt and neither did his sister. But he couldn't live with himself if she got hurt, maybe it was the older brother mentality or the fact she was only thing he had left.

Pietro planned to tell her the good things, the times with his parents and the very rare acts of kindness from total strangers. But once he started he couldn't stop, he told her everything. The never quite full bellies, even when they had a home, the police officers who didn't do anything, the cold, everything. He went on for awhile, Chloe just watched him with rapt attention. She had a hint of smile of her face throughout, not because of the pain but because of the passion in his voice. Pietro apologized for his long speech. "I am sorry, I just got to focused. Anyway, what was New Jersey like?"

Chloe sucked in a breath before she began. "New Jersey is my home. That's where my family is, I mean I loved Hawaii and Cali was alright, don't get me wrong, but New Jersey is where I grew up. We lived about a six minute walk away from my grandparents, and everyone acted like we lived on Pluto. We would start what my uncle dubbed 'the train' by going to my cousin's house then we would hop their backyard fence, get those two, then go to my other cousins house and at some point we'd go to my grandmother's house. It was basically a free for all, we had are own rules. The only one that wasn't ours was when the streetlamps we got skinny butts inside because it was dinner time at Gram's. We had dinner late because it was then everyone was in the same place. It was easier to just make big dinners there rather then us all run home. Then we'd all go back out until we got to tired or called in. We ran around the neighborhood we were allowed to go as far as the park until we were nine. Then we could use the path at the end of my street to get to the beach. That was my childhood, going to the beach when it was warm enough, sledding when it was cold enough, and the park and the neighborhood anytime." She smiled at the memories.

Chloe told him all the good in her time in Jersey, even taking rides to Pennsy (a nickname for Pennsylvania). She talked about going to the shore and swimming until they dropped, then they would rinse off and stay at the boardwalk for hours. Their "bodyguards" were almost always Bruce and his best friend Jamie, they had to make sure that they stayed together, listened to the rules, and that Ben didn't try looking up the teenage girl's skirts (it happened a lot). The first two rules were easy the latter was a bit more difficult. Gia and the Schuyler twins were easy to watch; Chloe always listened and when the other two didn't she'd give them a look and they'd basically put their tails between their legs.

"We played a few games we made up, like 'Ghost House' and 'It's A Twister'," Chloe went on to explain how the games worked. 'Ghost House' never really stayed consistent; the only thing that was, was where they played it at. A few houses down from the Bassi's house was a house that nobody lived in. A couple owned it, but they traveled back and forth to India so much over the years it was never kept up properly. They played in the front lawn, but the game always changed. Sometimes they were going through the jungle, or a haunted house, or an apocalyptic wasteland, whatever they felt like. After they were done they had to check each other for hitchhikers. She explained to Pietro that the were annoying tiny weeds that were balls with spikes that stuck to you. She didn't know the actually name for them, they just called them hitchhikers. 'It's A Twister' was basically just one of them yelling 'it's a tister' and them all running and hiding in playhouse in the Duffy's backyard from the twister. You would have to climb up to get in and the last person had to be saved from the twister. They would spin in a circle until they became to dizzy and fell over "dead" It was usually Chloe because she A) was slow, B) wasn't good at climbing the rope up the mini rock wall to the playhouse, and C) since she danced a lot she was the only one who could spin a lot without falling over.

"We also had these really cool neighbors. My mom didn't like them because they were Hispanic, but they were the sweetest people. We were always welcome there, she made us dinner a lot because my mom wasn't home. She had two kids; Fuerza, meaning Strength, who was our age and Cielo, which meant Heaven who was closer to uncle B's age. We would go over and she would say 'Chloe, Joey, mis otros hijos'! Which means 'my other children'. We would get their attention by riding up to their house, ringing the bells on our bikes, and yelling 'Martine' 'cause it was their lastname. And when we would play with our cousins and they were on our team we would say 'by the power of heaven and strength, we will win'." She smiled at the memories of them. Her and Cielo would talk music all the time, showing each other songs, she is the reason Chloe learned the guitar and piano. Fuerza and her brother got along really well too, both of them wanting to play football.

Pietro was happy that she was happy. He was proud that he was what probed the happiness. He loved the light in her eyes as she talked so passionately telling him about her life. Though he was confused on a lot of terms she used like boardwalk, shore, backyard, and free for all. But she looked to happy for him to stop and question her.

Chloe also talked about Hawaii and the similarities. They still had the same laid-back relaxed demeanor her family did, the come over, do what you want, what's mine is yours attitude. Though they were huge differences. Slang was a big one, the residents used a lot of Hawaiian terms, they had to be explained to the twins. They had asked a friend if they wanted to go to the shore one Friday night to which they got 'what the fuck is the shore'?

Some of the Hawaiian kids, the ones who were actual natives didn't like them at first. They didn't like white people that much because they took over their island, they were also a military family, those kids were almost always stuck up. But one day this military kid purposely spilled his milk over another kid's lunch and laughed at him for not having enough to get more. So Chloe gave him her lunch and her brother told a teacher. When the kid's older sibling asked why they helped his brother and not their 'friend' she said, "we're not friends with people like our mom." And she was still friends with the boy, Kamekona to this day.

And they were not used to the heat! They had never been anywhere where in was in the eighties the week before Christmas. It was always warm and rained off and on constantly. They were shorts all the time.

Hawaii was where the two twins learned to surf, and they fell in love. It was the only sport where surpassed her brother(because dance and gymnastics apparently didn't count). She had much better balance than he did and was a better swimmer. Joey's strength was in his arms, sure he had plenty in his legs but he mainly used his arms to lift and throw. Chloe's strength was in her legs since she was a dancer and gymnast. Surfing required a lot in the legs, the swimming to get to the waves, pushing yourself up on the board, and standing there steering with your feet. Balance was key and all though both were clumsy her brother was way worse. They began to compete, beating people who had surfing their entire lives. They even did competitions where they both were on the same board and her brother would lift her up.

Hawaii was where Tori came into their lives. She was the only one not born in New Jersey, in fact she wasn't even born in a hospital at all, she born on the Naval base in Pearl City. Tori took Joey's room and he moved in with her; and since there wasn't enough room for another bed they had to share one. They didn't mind, it made more sense. That was when her depression got bad and he could keep an eye on her and comfort her from her nightmares. Plus when Tori woke up they were closer to her. Their parents never got up with her, her dad had work and her mom _needed_ sleep. So the twins would take care of her every time she woke up. Luckily their teachers understood and their homeroom teacher was also their first block English teacher. She knew what it was like having to get up with a newborn. Since Chloe knew what they were doing she'd let them sleep through class as long as she taught her brother. She literally gave them a pillow to share.

Chloe's tone changed when she got to California, it was more tense than ever before. Though she did try to hide it. "California was different, way different. My mom always complained that the house we lived in on the base was to small, so my dad bought this big house with four stories if you count the basement, a huge horseshoe driveway around a huge lawn, and no backyard just beach. I mean it was nice we could leave our boards in the backyard and surf before school and after. But that house was never home. It was always way too big, I felt like I would walk back to Jersey before I got to the other side of the room I was in. We had someone clean the rooms except our own, we had to do that. Cali is where my parents fought nonstop if they were talking. That's where the bullying got bad, my brother tried to stop it but he couldn't be around me twenty four seven. Most of the friends I made Freshman year graduated that year. Then the accident happened, then I met Brad. The friends I did have I pushed away because Brad didn't like them. I pushed so many people away, even Gia, but she saw right through me. Then everything happened and I knew I had to get out of there, that had always been the plan. The second I could go to a college far enough where I could visit but no be smothered by my mother and when Tori was old enough move wherever she went to college. But I didn't do that, because that plan was with Joey. He would go to UCLA and I would go to Cal Arts so we could be close enough to Tori. But that didn't happen." She wipes tears that had formed.

Pietro grabbed Chloe's hand, "everything happens for a reason. I lived for a reason and you are here for a reason. That is all that matters." He smiled reassuringly and she gave a weak smile.

Chloe decided to trust him even though he gave her butterflies in the stomach.

* * *

If Chloe had known the Pros and Cons of medication and therapy, she would have started sooner. At first she hated it, her Anti-Depressants made her tired and gave her mood swings. But then she switched to a different one that made her less tired and made her gain a little weight. After her body adjusted to it she began to feel, somewhat happy. Though she felt guilty about feeling happy without her brother, but she was learning that her thoughts weren't always reasonable.

After two different therapists Chloe found one she clicked with. The first was a male who just wanted to write her prescriptions to 'help' and the other was nice and all but she didn't feel comfortable around him. Now Chloe had an amazing therapist who was more of a friend than anything. Her name was Dr. Michelle, she insisted on being called just Michelle because she wanted people to feel comfortable around her.

Chloe thought therapy would be awful and she would hate it, but Michelle made her feel wonderful. Her first session with her was hard, but after that the pace was more relaxing than taxing. It wasn't therapy where she just sat there and talked, they did talk, but they also colored, drew, painted, listened to music, wrote. Things that Chloe loved. Of course, almost every session she cried, but it was more of a cleansing cry as Michelle put it. It was usually about her brother, of course, but she felt better afterword.

Michelle gave her a journal to write in, whether it be stories, poems, songs, or doodles it mattered not. It was a place for Chloe to write her feelings, almost like a diary. At first she didn't use it, but then two weeks later she filled it with poems. That was how Chloe expressed herself best.

Bruce usually took her to therapy when he could, or Nat and Wanda. So when Nat and Wanda were waiting for her afterward she wasn't that surprised. It was what they were doing before they got back to the tower that surprised her. Nat was taking them shopping for clothes and undergarments. Neither had ones that fit right and they apparently needed clothes that fit right.

Their first stop was _Victoria's Secret_ , it had both young adults blushing like mad. Wanda because she had never seen women pose in such skimpy clothes before, Sokovia was a very conservative country. Chloe because her mother never let her go near stores like this. Natasha said they didn't have to buy anything there, she just wanted them to be sized properly. She had seen Wanda's too tight bra's in the locker room after training and when she confronted her about it she blushed and said Chloe's were worse.

They were fitted and to nobody's surprise they didn't carry anything Chloe's size. Chloe was curvy, she had the body of a grown woman, not the stick figure girl's they offered bras too. She was a 42DD, the store stopped at 38 triple's. This did not help her feel any better about herself, especially when she saw how happy Wanda was when she purchased bras that fit.

So the girls went to another store, one for 'plus size' girls. They had clothes that fit her, and bras too. Chloe felt weird modeling off outfits let alone bras to anyone, but Nat made her feel better. At first she turned down everything she was shown and when Nat asked why she said, "I'm fat. And fat girls can't and don't deserve to look good, mom's rule." It took Natasha's all not to track down this girl's mother and murder her, she knew Bruce wouldn't care, hell he'd probably help, but Chloe would care. She had heard what Bruce said his sister had said to her and she couldn't believe it. Chloe was not fat, she was curvy, yes she was plus sized but if she was taller she would look less heavy.

Natasha sat her down and slowly explained that she was not fat, she had curves. Chloe was Chloe not stupid words like fat or ugly, that she shouldn't let other people or herself label her. That she had a grown women's body not a thin tiny one like most girl's her age did. Her body was matured, like hers was. Then Wanda admitted she was jealous of Chloe's curves, that she saw how some guys looked at her and felt insecure. At first Chloe was confused, nobody had ever said something remotely like that to her.

And then they shopped. They found her style; because she never got to see what she did and didn't like. Her clothes were still loose and flowy, very bohemian/70's style. Some Kimonos and a lot of floral clothes for her. Though that all were long sleeves, she said she wasn't ready to show her self-harm scars yet, which nobody was upset about.

Though she did buy some shorts; she didn't want to. Not because of how she looked in them but because if she went outside in them her scar could get sunburned. She had done that about three months back falling asleep outside her aunt's house and it had hurt. She could barely walk as is but with the sun burn it was ungodly. Stupid paleness.

On the way back to the tower the three stopped to grab a quick lunch at _Junior's_ which was a deli and had amazing cheesecake as Chloe said. They were going to sit outside but it was July and too hot, so they sat inside. They were talking when Nat decided to ask the question she'd been meaning too, "so what's been going on between you and Barnes?"

Chloe choked on her soda, she was not expecting that. Where had that come from? She and Bucky weren't anything, just when the nights got rough they talked and fell asleep together. They weren't doing anything wrong, right? "We aren't together," Chloe decided on saying. "Just sometimes at night when one of us has a bad dream we talk for awhile and then we fall asleep. We aren't doing anything wrong, I think? I don't know, I'm just used to someone always being there when I sleep." She went on to explain how Joey, Tori, and herself always ended up with each other because of her sister's nightmares and how when Tori was a baby the twins had to share a bed. "I've always slept with at least one person next to me since I was ten, I'm just used to it."

This explanation made a lot of sense; the whole thing didn't make sense. There was no way Chloe would be in a relationship so soon after her last one and Bucky was nowhere near ready for one. The two had to many emotional issues to be in a committed relationship.

Wanda was secretly cheering because this meant Chloe and her brother still had a chance. She would have loved if they were to get together; they would be so cute. Over the years Wanda had watched her brother flirt endlessly with girls and be on to the next one within a few days. Chloe was the longest girl he had ever paid attention too. He didn't try to flirt with her so directly, so bluntly as he did before. And it wasn't his typical flirting either, not his innuendos.

Nat turned her attention to Wanda, "so how is it going with _Viz_?" She teased her nickname for the droid. This time Wanda choked on her soda, not ready for the attention to be thrown to her.

Then she went onto a mini rant about how Vision had kissed her and then flew off before she could say anything. She didn't understand what she did wrong, she kissed him back. Did he not like it? At first she had thought he didn't want to kiss her, but then she remembered he had kissed her first. Wanda couldn't wrap her mind around it, "and now he will not talk to me!"

Chloe had a hunch, "where did this happen?"

"My room," Wanda had no clue where she was going with this; none whatsoever.

Chloe kept glancing at each of her friends. "Hear me out, so Vision is learning human interaction right? So what if he read up on flirting and dates and saw that it is more 'romantic' to kiss after a date? Then he was talking to you and maybe because you looked so pretty or something he lost his resolve and kissed you. He now thinks he has ruined any chance with you because he didn't do it 'right'. Ten bucks says I'm right." She moved her hand back and forth to signal them to say she was right.

Nat raised her eyebrows and made an impressed face, "she's got a point." It made sense.

Chloe sat back in her sat, "see I'm good for something." She made a proud face and the other two decided to ignore her comment. And after mouthwatering cheesecake they went back to the tower.

* * *

It was a night that Chloe and Pietro had made a stop at the bakery. It had become a habit for them when they were both awake, to sneak away to the bakery and forget the present and remember the past. A chance to break away; him from the world of being an Avenger and her from therapy. Tonight, Chloe decided to be more honest about her childhood. She felt she left out many important things that had happened, some not for the better.

So as she and Pietro ate she began. "Remember when I talked about growing up in New Jersey?" He nodded, "well, I wasn't completely honest about what happened there. I feel bad, you were so open about your life and I couldn't talk about mine." She looked down and pushed her brownie with her fork.

Pietro gingerly placed his hand on hers that rested on the table, she tried to hide his smile when she didn't flinch. "It is all correct," she knew he meant all right. "You said you could not bring yourself to talk about it no? You told me what you could at the moment and that is what matters. I am sorry that you felt pressured to talk about something that hurt."

Chloe looked up at him, "I told you what I could, and now I can tell you the rest." She took a breath to steady herself. She did not know if she could do this; remind herself of all the bad in her life. Chloe also did not want to make it seem like she was 'one upping' Pietro by comparing their two different childhoods.

Chloe told him the real reason her and her family were sent outside; not because they wanted to, but because they had to. Their parents would leave them and they were allowed to be home alone so they all stayed together outside. They played day in and day out because they were allowed home. They way they knew if they could go in was the front doors. All of their houses had a glass door that acted like a screen door and a wood door. The glass door was always closed, but if the the wood door was open and you could see in you were allowed in, if not tough luck. You had to find another house to use the bathroom or sleep at. That was how most of their sleepovers happened.

More than once they couldn't get their grandparents attention, they were the only ones home and were deaf. Her Gram cleaned and Popples was almost always in his workshop sectioned half the garage which they could not get to. Since it was cut off Bruce would go to their section that he could access and grab some things. He would put all of them in a wagon then tie it with a jump rope to his bike and ride them across the main roads (and almost got hit by tourists a couple of times) to _Manco and Manco's_ pizza place to get lunch. He would use an old expired debit card he had found laying around to pay, but the manger let it slide. He felt bad for the kids and plus Charles, their Poppy, used to be his mechanic and saved his "sorry ass" multiple times.

Of course Chloe never wanted to go home, or to anyone else's house besides the Martine's and maybe if her grandparent's if her grandmother wasn't there. She hated what happened there. The family would pull out the liquor and good conscience went home for the night. It got louder than it already was and things that should stay hidden were left out. That was how the kids found out her Aunt Chelsea had slept with her twin's husband, her brother-in-law, after they both were married. And that was when Chloe learned her mother wanted to put her up for adoption.

Chloe also learned at a young age that when the doorbell rang she had to check the surface's to make sure nothing illegal was there. Whether it be alcohol or drugs, her mom and siblings were supposedly "fun" at parties. She never had to hide drugs herself, but alcohol was a given. Her mother drank, a lot. Ben had told her that's how he got into pot, because he saw his dad doing some acid and wanted to join him. Pot was the gateway drug. This is how she learned that she wanted nothing to do with either in the future. Wishful thinking.

"Not to the same extent as you, I do know what it's like to go to bed hungry." Chloe was not talking about her eating disorder. "This one day, I may have been three, but I remember it vividly. My brother and I went home and our mom wasn't home, we hadn't eaten since dinner the night before and it was dinner time that night. We were too afraid to ask for help, our mom yelled at us last time for 'getting her in trouble' so we went to bed hungry. By the next morning we couldn't take it, so we made ourselves food. We made French Toast, go big or go home right? So, I stood on one of our island chairs because they were higher and dipped the bread and my brother stood on a kitchen chair and cooked the toast. Joey demanded to cook the toast because he didn't want me to get 'boo-boos from the hot stuff'." She wiped a tear at the memory, even at three her brother took care of her. "We could have hurt ourselves or under or over cooked the food. I guess watching Popples do it a million times was enough." She gave a half smile at the thought. "But our grandparents found out, we told our cousins who told their parents who told gram. And then she made dinner ever night."

Pietro had to take a minute to process this. Chloe had just unloaded a lot of compromising information. She just admitted how she was basically neglected. She and her brother were left alone, hell her and her family members were left alone to play outside. Thank god none of them got kidnapped. They were left to do as they pleased, most children would kill for a chance like that. But it wasn't like that for her, she could not just wish it away. She was stuck alone with only children to guide her. Her uncle was probably the oldest so he must have taken could care of them but there were eight of them and one Bruce. Pietro May have never finished school but he knew that math didn't make sense.

What kind of parents let their children do this? Did the things they did? Both Chloe and Bruce talked about how great of a person her grandfather, her Poppy was, but why would he let that happen?

Chloe seemed to have read his mind, "my grandfather didn't know the full story. He knew my mom left a lot and he knew she drank but he didn't know about the drugs or the full extent of the circumstances. He would have stopped it. He would have pushed away what my brother and I dubbed the "Banner Dream" and done something. He would have pulled us from our mom and then the family would be split and my brother and I decided we couldn't let that happen. We couldn't pull our family apart for any reason."

That wasn't up to Chloe though, the twins shouldn't have to make that decision. They were _children_ for Christ's sakes! They should have to worry about their well being over their family. They shouldn't have to have made that call. But then again, Pietro and Wanda shouldn't have had to live on the streets. They should have had to do the things they did for food. Life just wasn't fair for anyone. But Pietro squeezes her hand, "We should not know these things yet. We should still be children. And one day you will see it, and I will help you see it."

And for the first time in a long while Chloe believed someone with no second thoughts.

* * *

 ** _Thank you for reading if you want you can review._**


	11. Chapter 11

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, self-destructive thoughts, self-hate, rape, verbal abuse, phyical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I did not like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale.**_

 _ **I saw Infinity Wars and I will tell you NOTHING. I'm going to be like Doctor Strange and not give anything away even though I know the ending. Though I will say I am very shookth because {insert spoilers here}. So let's be like Doctor Strange who saw over fourteen million endings and didn't spoil it for us. If you want to talk/rant about it PM me.**_

 _ **Warning: mentions of nightmares/terrors, PTSD, a death in the family, a funeral, Chloe's mom being a bitch (I tried to write a Philly accent as best as I could, but I have a South Jersey one, so I used my grandmother as my muse), grieving, British and Irish slang (sorry if I get it wrong, I'm from Jersey if you cannot tell), stereotypical British people (I don't mean to be rude I based these characters off my friend and she acts very steorotypically English), a certain soldier, Chloe and Wanda fluffiness,**_

 _ **Thank you**_ ** _Snapplecrackles,_** ** _chimpnsocks,_** ** _abstract0118,_** ** _Mcduffie145_** ** _for reviewing._**

 _ **I don't own Marvel** **unfortunat** **ely** **, Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Care Bears, Chewbacca from Star Wars, A Wrinkle In Time, the lyrics to "For Good" from WICKED, Star Wars, ;only my OCs**_

* * *

Life was going good for Chloe when her world got rocked again. Her therapy had been more hardcore, delving deeper into her problems. Instead of the dirt around the roots being casually kicked away it was now being dug up. So many feelings she had harbored to herself over the years finally were let out. All of her self-doubts and fear were released into the open. Chloe never realized how the feeling of hopelessness of not knowing where her uncle was hurt her. She just pushed it away and pretended it didn't hurt. In fact she didn't know for months, Chloe wasn't allowed to make calls to that part of 'The States' on the landline, it cost to much for a family with a baby on the way. She was only allowed to use a cell phone and her dad used his at work and her mom was pretty much attached to it. When her mom casually mentioned one day that her uncle was M.I.A she cried for two hours. Her mother told her to stop, she never liked her little brother anyway, she would have rather had Jamie as a sibling.

Chloe never had realized how much she had missed him, she still had Jamie when he went missing. And when Jamie was deployed she was hurt as well. So taking a leap of faith she decided to tell her uncle. She met him in the lab when Tony was on a mission and slowly told him. There was a lot of tears from both parties when she divulged the truth. Bruce didn't realize how much it hurt her and it made him angry with himself. 'The Other Guy' thought he needed help, but when he saw Chloe there he backed off. He must have known that Bruce didn't want his niece to see that side of him, especially when she was so vulnerable.

Because of letting out all of these pent up emotions Chloe wanted to completely stop therapy because it became hard but Bruce wouldn't let that happen. He reminded her that she need this and it would be worth it in the long run. And there _would_ be a long run, so help him god. He never wanted to live in a world where she was gone for good. She needed therapy very much so; so she could process life better. So when times got tough she didn't make herself worse. And life was about to get rough.

Chloe's life and world came crashing down once again. They say when it rains it pours; well it was a flood for her. And she was completely submerged under and was being swept away by the currents. She didn't think it could happen although she knew it could happen. It wasn't one of those 'it can't happen to me' scenarios, Chloe was aware it would happen, she just never processed that it would happen. The fact never fully seeped into her mind until she got that phone call. Chloe wasn't ready in the slightest.

It was a relaxing but energetic evening in the base, most of those who were in the base were lounging around together doing different things. Tony and Bruce were tucked away in the lab (Bruce hadn't been out in hours since Natasha wasn't there he had no reminders so leave until Chloe brought him lunch and forced the two out and were now working again). Steve and Sam were 'arguing' over events that had happened while Bucky watched on, Wanda and Pietro were talking to each other in English so Chloe could join but she was sketching away.

Chloe looked hard at work, Pietro kept getting distracted by her and Wanda would flick him and mentally scold him. Her hair kept falling in front of her face and she kept pushing it back or blowing it out of the way. She was so focused she had yet to realize she had, what he thought was pencil, but was actually charcoal, on her cheek.

Bucky was also looking at her, but not in the same light as Pietro, but he was comparing her. He realized how similar she was to Steve before the war; she was tiny (sorry, not sorry), had some health problems, blonde, blue eyed, loved art, and wasn't afraid of him. He was starting to realize he got along with her so well because she helped remind him of a better time, before the war, before the craziness.

Sam huffed and turned from Steve, his eye sight landing on Chloe's drawing. "That's really good," he pointed to the drawing. It was of a pretty girl with long and slightly dark wavy hair, pale skin, and a beautiful face. She had a small nose piercing and an eyebrow bar. She had a cigarette between her dark color lips and her eyes were big with heavy make-up. Her one should was covered in tattoos. The drawing my have been in black and white, but you could see the different shades. "It kinda reminds me of an emo _Jessica Rabbit_."

Chloe looked at the picture and tilted her head. She examined her drawing again, "that's a really interesting way to interpret this." She had never thought about it like that. She started off by drawing what her mom thought she would turn into, but then changed aspects. She continued to draw away as the conversation went back.

Suddenly her ringtone played causing her to furrow her brow. Who would call her at 8:30 at night and on a Sunday? Chloe saw that her contact had a picture of her paternal grandmother and her at the beach, she didn't need to see an English and British flag next to her name to know it was her. This struck her as odd because if it was 8:30 in New York it would be half past one in the morning there!

Not wasting any more time Chloe answered the phone. She could hear a slight steady noise in the background, most likely her cousin's deep voice. "Hello, Granny?"

"Chloe Charlotte, how are you, darling?" Her grandmother said and the deep steady noise disappeared. Usually, she loathed when people put her first name with her middle name, she actually preferred her middle name but wasn't allowed to use it. Chloe Charlotte was so close to her full name, but when her Granny did it she could not care less. Most people knew it bothered her and still she heard it constantly. But her grandmother loved her name and wanted to name either of her daughters one of those names but her husband said no (he was an asshole, but that's another story). Chloe didn't have the heart to correct her, plus it sounded proper with her accent.

Chloe made a confused face, knowing her grandmother was stalling. She usually dove straight into the conversation, she was scatterbrained like that and somewhere in the middle of a thought would ask. "I'm okay Granny, what's wrong, I can tell your hiding something." Chloe hated it when people beat around the bush.

Her grandmother sighed and she heard a shift of the phone. She said off the phone, but Chloe could still hear her, "I told you she'd see right through me, she is the smart one!" Her grandmother moved the phone back and began to talk to her. "Chloe Charlotte, I have something very important you need to know, but I wish I didn't have to tell you. Heaven knows your mother will not tell you."

This did not help Chloe's uneasiness. Her grandmother did not like her mother, but did everything she could to hide it. Chloe moved her stuff and began to stand up. "Just give me a second to get into the hallway." As quickly and as gracefully as she could she rushed into the hallway.

This was Pietro said he could hear the conversation slightly, he didn't mean to eavesdrop he just heard the important stuff. And they decided to have FRIDAY call Bruce in case something bad would happen, which was most likely true. Bruce came to the surface a few minutes later, looking confused and panicked. He thought it was _his_ mother calling and breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn't her. He would need time to prepare to have a conversation with her.

After a few minutes later he decided to go closer to the hallway, just to make sure she was alright. He didn't look at her just listened, along with Steve who had better hearing, to make sure she was okay. The first thing he heard was Chloe say, "hey mom, it's your daughter, Chloe." There was a moment then he could hear his sister screaming at her through the phone, he knew what she was saying and it broke his heart. Steve looked pained to hear it as well. "I just wanted to know if Gran-, Dad's mom, called and told you the news-"

 _"Yeah, she called,"_ Bruce could clearly hear the sneer in his sister's obnoxiously loud voice, _"told the bitch to rot in hell. I don' givva shit what happened. That's their problem, if I knew all this bullshit would happen I wouldda nevah married your father! Nevah wouldda hadda to bury_ My Joey, _because of ya either. Don'tcha evah call me again, you ain't my kid. Fuck off."_

Chloe took a breath after she ended the call. That wasn't that bad of a conversation given their history. She thought her mom would have hung up once she saw who it was. And she only told her to fuck off, not a multitude of other things to do. Chloe knew her mother did not like her dad's family, but she didn't think that she would not show them support. After everything they did and tried to do with her brother's death...

Chloe needed to cry, write in her journal, sleep, call Michelle in the morning, and somehow convince her uncle to let her go to England. The latter seemed the easiest though, she had a knack of getting Bruce to let her do things (she had weaseled a lot of his allowance money to get her ice cream over the years). And when Bruce found out why, he would see how much it meant to her. Plus, she told her Granny she was coming.

Speaking of Bruce, she needed to talk to him. She needed to somehow sneak through the lounge without the team realizing she was about to cry. And she was about to cry. God, how could this happen? Why, god, why? How could something so horrible happen to someone so sweet? So innocent. Chloe couldn't imagine what her Aunt was thinking right now. She wished she was there now because she had planned a funeral for someone she loved before. Someone she couldn't live without. Oh god, she'd never see him again.

Oh yeah, she had to breathe.

Putting the back of her fist to her mouth she tried to suck in her tears. She turned and walked back into the lounge. All eyes, including Bruce's were on her. Looks of concern made her feel trapped, like she was in that warehouse with her brother's body. Bruce took a step toward her, "Chloe are you okay?"

That was when she let herself begin to cry. That one question, she had heard before, but only a few times with that much sincerity. Hell, she had seen it signed to her with just as much care. Thinking of the person who had signed it to her she said, "it's over. Bobby's gone." Chloe flung herself into her uncle's arms while letting chokes of sobs through. "He's fourteen Uncle B, _fourteen!"_

Bruce hugged her and began to pat her hair. He began to slightly swing her from side to side, it used to calm her down when she was little. Her chokes felt like a dagger in Bruce's heart, she was hurting and he couldn't help it. "Oh, Clo'," he continued to rub her hair, "I'm so sorry. C'mon, let's sit down."

Bruce and Chloe sat down on the couch and Wanda immediately took the seat next to her. Pietro and Bucky sat near them to show their support while Steve and Sam went farther away to give them space. Chloe began to wipe her eyes, she hated crying in front of people, but she cried so easily she should be used to it at this. She should be used to people leaving her, dying, but the truth was nobody is ever ready for a loved one to die.

Chloe began to tell her uncle what her grandmother told her. "He's been in the hospital for a few days, they were waiting to tell me because they knew I was struggling. They didn't want me to do anything stupid, besides he was supposed to get better. Bobby has a lot of health problems, always has, he has this rare genetic mutation. I'm not sure how it's properly pronounced but his organs are growing at a normal rate while the rest of his body is not. His heart grew to big," she stopped for a moment to hold back a sob, "and it didn't have enough room to beat properly. We didn't know how long he would have, because reason says he should have died years ago. Most people who have it don'make past the NICU if they aren't a stillborn. They don't survive 'til fourteen. Plus he has autism and down syndrome." Chloe leaned into her uncle and Wanda rubbed her shoulder.

Bruce was at a loss for words, he wasn't sure how to handle this. He had never dealt with a death in the family this close to them dying. He didn't know about Joey until months after the fact and his father literal years afterword. He wasn't used to comforting people at all. Hell, he couldn't even comfort himself. He just knew how to keep The Other Guy back and how to let him out. But this was Chloe, he needed to do this, and he couldn't just flip on _The Care Bears_ and wait for her to tell him what was wrong.

"It'll be okay, Chloe," Bruce said soothingly as he could. He was a man of science not affection. "We can send flowers or something-"

Chloe sat and shook her head. "No, Uncle B, I going to the funeral." She said funeral quietly, she hated that word so much. "After everything that happened with JJ, I have too." She began to pick at her nails as she began to talk. Her South Jersey accent was heavy and she was slipping into a North East Philly one. "Ya know, my mom didn't even tell them he died? She never called them, they're our family and she didn't care. I called them less than a day and half before JJ's funeral, wantin' ta know when to pick them up from the airport, 'cause I couldn't fit them all in the car. Granny thought I lost my 'marbles', why would they be comin'? Then I had ta tell my grandmother that we were burying Joey, she had no idea. She said the were somehow comin', and that she loved me, and then she hung up." Chloe stopped and continued.

"So the mornin' of the funeral, they all flew in, got changed at the airport and went to the service. Mom was rantin' and ravin' 'cause she didn' want 'em there plus the stunt I pulled. They tried so hard to help out, pay for things, help clean up, make food, you name it. They called all the time, Gia told Granny what I tried to do and she just hugged me and cried. She thanked Gia, for sneakin' me in and for tryin' to get me help. I'm going to support her and my aunt Carrie. And say goodbye to Bobby. 'Cause you know what he said when he saw me at the airport? He hugged me and signed 'sad' and wouldn't let go of me. I will be there because she's burying two grandsons in less than six months."

Chloe was leaning her elbows on her lap and put her head in her hands. "I am going, even if I have to swim to England, I'm going." Bruce understood, he had a feeling she would demand to go. She needed to be with her family, her dad's side of the family. She needed to grieve with her family, her dad's side of the family.

But, Chloe needed support right now. And she would need support when she went with her family. Not just for her mental health, but for her safety. Bruce hated to admit it, but she might do something reckless again. Chloe tended to let her emotions consume her (he _no idea_ where she got that from). Plus, the team had a lot of enemies that would stoop as low as to use his niece to get to him, he wanted her safe. He knew her family wouldn't let anything happen to her, but he wanted to be safe.

Bruce sighed, knowing she would get her way. He hated seeing her upset, he loved it when she smiled. "Alright, you can go, on one condition, one of us has to go with you." Chloe jumped up and hugged him. She was going to see her family, even though there were awful circumstances.

"I can go," Wanda said shyly, "I don't mind. I can protect her, plus I've always wanted to go to England." In reality, she just didn't want to see Chloe leave without her. Chloe was the first true friend she had ever had (Pietro didn't count), she didn't want leave her in her time of need. Wanda wanted to prove she could be a good friend, because she needed one.

So it was decided upon, Wanda would go with Chloe to England. They would be there for five days, so Chloe could spend time with her family. She was excited to show Wanda some of the things she had been telling her about; like the pub by the sea and the diner by her Grandmother's. They lived in a small town, by the coast (what was with her family and living by the sea?). She called her grandmother the next morning to tell her that Wanda was coming. Her grandmother thought she had meant Gia, but then was elated when she heard Chloe had made a friend.

Tony paid for their flight, to which Chloe cried and thanked him. Plus she hugged him to everyone's surprise, Chloe still didn't like touching people. Tony said it was okay and as long as she cooked before she left, he'd call it even. So Chloe cooked, leaving dishes in the freezer to be heated.

Three days later the two left, Chloe had cried saying goodbye to her uncle and Wanda to her brother. He had tried to come along, but Chloe said she didn't need an entourage though she was thankful for the gesture. She was sad to leave the team, she was used to them being around, but if Sam scared her one more time she would spit in his food.

After the goodbyes the two went on the plane and Chloe had to calm Wanda down. Unbeknownst to Chloe, Wanda had a fear of heights. Because of staring through the gaping hole in the floor from the bombings and the battle of Sokovia. Chloe felt bad, but Wanda said she would be fine, that Chloe needed her and her fear of heights wouldn't stop that.

For the long seven hour flight, the two talked quietly. Swapping stories and Chloe warning her about her family. Well, it wasn't a bad warning, it was just so she wouldn't be overwhelmed. Her grandmother was extremely scatterbrained, so if she changed the subject on her to not offended. That her aunts were amazing people, but if you lied to them they wouldn't like you (Chloe assured her nothing would happen), and their husbands was the same way but they had a filter. She explained her cousins whom she called J-cubed, since their names all started with J. James was the oldest at 16 and seemed like a player, but was a giant softie. Joseph was a few months older than Bobby at 14, a typical middle child, loud and always trying to get your attention. Johnny was the youngest of the three, he was 12, but acted like the oldest. He was wise, just not street smart.

They also made a friend on the flight, well Chloe did, the family in front of them had a year old baby who Chloe kept playing with. She would trail off mid sentence to wave at the baby who kept trying to climb over the seat to get to her. Chloe loved little kids and Wanda could see that. She was good with the baby, and she heard with other children.

Soon they had landed in England, Wanda was excited while Chloe tried to be. Every time she got close she would remember why they were there. Once they got through the terminal and all they were grabbing their bags when they heard, "Chloe Charlotte!" Chloe turned first, since Wanda wasn't used to hearing her middle name.

Wanda was greeted with a woman that stood about her height, but looked a lot like Chloe. She had hair that was about to her elbows and was gray with age, Chloe's watery blue eyes. Though she was not as pale and was slimmer than her. Plus, she had wrinkles from age and worry. She was a very pretty woman even so.

The two hugged for a moment and then when they released she introduced Wanda. "Granny, this is one of my best friends Wanda." Chloe motioned to her.

Wanda was at a loss for words, Chloe thought of her as one of her best friends. Wanda thought of her similarly, but wouldn't admit it out loud, she didn't want to 'jinx' it, a slang term Chloe once said. Wanda knew a lot about Chloe, stuff that Bruce did not, only Joey and Gia (and Tori, but she did not completely comprehend). And in turn, she knew things only Pietro knew. They knew some secrets about each other that nobody knew. Like the reason that Chloe tried to get better after her first attempt was not for both of her siblings, just Joey. She didn't think Tori would need nor want her as a sister, but that had changed over time. And she knew that those few hours that Pietro's life hung in the balance, Wanda had been seriously debating joining him if he passed. She guessed that made them friends. Best friends.

Chloe grabbed Wanda's hand and brought her over to her grandmother, an action noted by both women. "Wand, this is my Granny." Chloe smiled nervously, hoping that the two would get along.

Wanda stuck her hand out for her to shake, "it's pleasure to meet you Ms. Schuyler."

The women looked at her hand oddly, "no, none of that," her accent was heavy, making Wanda nervous, because she knew that when an accent got heavy the person speaking had a strong feeling. Then she pulled the young girl into a bone crushing hug. "My name is Arlene, and you will call me such. If my Chloe Charlotte cares for you, then you're apart of the family." Arlene released a starstruck Wanda and motioned for the girl's to follow. "Sorry, your aunt Carrie is staying at my house and she's with Cathie now. The school could not come because they are at boys." Arlene stopped in her tracks. "Wait reverse that," she moved her hands to show she was changing the word order, "the _boys_ could not come because they are at _school_. I swear I was an English major and a secondary school teacher." She shook her head and led them to the car.

On the hour ride back to her home Chloe's grandmother said the boys (J-cubed) didn't think they weren't due in until tomorrow. They were not told as they had tests that day and would demand to see them. And Chloe was not kidding when she said her Granny was scatterbrained, she often changed the topic mid sentence to something completely unrelated. Plus, she used a lot of slang, to which Chloe had to explain and tell her Granny that Wanda wasn't from the 'colonies'.

They drove through a small town that reminded Wanda of a town that belonged in an overly dramatic romance novella. Small town, houses with a white picket fence and gardens with colorful flowers. There were not many people at their homes, but those who were waved to them, even at Wanda.

They soon arrived at a house that reminded Wanda of a house from a crappy romance novella. Yes it was cute, but it seemed to proper to be real. It was a small cottage like house, on a grassy knoll with a white picket fence. The house was a light beige and had reddish brown shudders. The garden was filled with red roses and lilacs that climbed up the front of it. It seemed to perfect to be real, but it was.

"You two can have Cathie and Carrie's old room for the time being. You can just drop your stuff off and unpack later. Carrie needs a visit and as soon as the boys see you they'll kidnap you." Arlene got out of the car and opened the trunk to get their stuff. Of course one of their cases got stuck so Wanda used her powers to get it out. Arlene just looked at her and shook her head, "don't let Joseph see you do that, he'll get you to help with pranks."

They were escorted into the house, that reminded Wanda of a stereotypical grandmother's house. Soft plush carpet, lights with a warm glow, a warmth to the house, she had deep red furniture with black detail and all her appliances were black. The walls had wallpaper that was silky, but not silk itself.

Arlene ushered the two girls into the back room of the house. It had a fairly large bed with light purple flowers on the sheets. It had a dresser, a purple chair, a television, and the small closet had mirrors on the front. Because of the size of the bed the room seemed much smaller than it was.

"Now," Arlene put her hands on her hips, "go see your aunt Carrie, she needs you before the boys whisk you away. She's really gutted over Bobby, go see her for a while. I'll give you a ring if I need you, or something. You two do have five days of holiday with us. One of those days we'll all sit down with a cup and some biscuits and I can get to know Wanda." Arlene rolled a piece of hair behind Wanda's ear. She was hesitant to let her, but someone mothering her felt nice.

Before they left Chloe went to the bathroom and Wanda was looking at the pictures in the hall. They all were of Chloe plus her siblings and her cousins. There were pictures at the beach and some at Buckingham Palace. Her favorite was one of Chloe and her brother standing at a cliff while she had her arms spread and he had his arms wrapped around her (Wanda felt like she had seen that image before but couldn't place it.). Wanda noted that there were baby pictures of her four cousins and Tori, not of her and Joey. In fact the oldest picture they had up there was them when they were about eight.

Chloe came out of the bathroom and joined Wanda at the pictures. Smiling at the memories she had with some of them (she wasn't there for the rest). They soon left as Arlene was 'knackered she had to take a kip' meaning she was taking a nap.

As they walked to her aunt's house, which was a few streets down Wanda thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. "why were there baby cameras of everyone but you and Joey?"

Once Chloe figured out she mixed up photographs and camera she explained. "My grandmother didn't know about us before my dad found her." She explained how her grandfather forcibly took her dad and as well as his mistress to America when her dad was three. They had moved back and forth while her dad grew up, thinking his step-mother was his actually his mother. When she fell ill and needed blood he tried to give her some because his father was not a match. He found out she was not his mother and was very upset. Then the truth unraveled and he contacted his mother, her Granny. "We didn't met her until we were a few months shy of eight. Hence why JJ and Joesph's names are so close. My mom refused to give her pictures because she 'gave up' looking for my dad, but you have to understand this was twenty-seven years later." Chloe smiled sadly, she was sad because her mom and grandmother didn't get along, but smiled because she remembered their faces when they were reunited.

Wanda couldn't imagine; not knowing where her family was for _twenty seven years_ or having her world rocked by finding out someone she considered her parent not actually being her parent. She didn't want to think about it because she imagined her and Pietro being separated. They almost were once, one of the orphanages wanted to put them in homes respective to their gender, but once they got wind they left. She couldn't imagine what Arlene thought for all those years.

The subject was dropped and before it could change the two arrived at a similar house. Almost the same colors except a warm brown on the shudders and purple flowers along with the lilacs crawling up the side of the house. This house had a just as homey feeling emitting from it as her grandmother's did.

They walked up the steps and Chloe was about to open the door when she remembered to knock. She was so used to her mother's side of the family where you just walked in, this was not the case. Her Aunt Cathie wouldn't care, but her husband wasn't overly fond of her behavior. So she knocked on the door and the two waited. A moment later the door swung open and Wanda was shocked to see the woman.

This woman could have passed for a older version of Chloe. They had the same pale blonde hair, watery blue eyes, pale skin, the same shaped figure and face. Except this woman had a slightly bigger nose, her hair was a few inches past her shoulders, was heavier, and was taller than her by a good five inches. Someone could say that this woman was Chloe's actual mother and Wanda wouldn't have questioned it.

"Mini me!" The woman called and than hugged Chloe tightly. She didn't yelp or grimace or fight, she hugged back. The woman swung with her for a moment, but then saw Wanda. "Hello, love, you must be Wanda," she let go of Chloe and gave Wanda a hug, "I'm Aunt Cathie or if you want to call me Cathie that's fine, whatever makes you comfortable." Cathie let go of Wanda and ushered the girls in. "Car' is in here."

She led them to the kitchen where another woman sat. She too looked like Chloe, or Chloe looked like her. The same hair, skin, and eyes, but had a slimmer build than either girl. Her face showed lines of worry etched in, but she still was very pretty. All of them were.

Wanda was jealous of their looks; they were beautiful. They all had that pale blonde that shined so much in the sun. They all had smooth skin that made each freckle look beautiful (Wanda hated her freckles). Pale blues eyes that shined just as bright as their hair in the light. Wanda had always been jealous of people with blue eyes, her brother had blue eyes while she had green and people would question if they were related at all. Most of all she was jealous of their curves; the kind that made guys stop and stare. They kind that made you feel like a model. Plus they all seemed nice and caring.

"Aunt Carrie?" Chloe asked softly while walking slowly toward her aunt. Her aunt looked up slowly and the sight almost broke the two best friend's heart.

She eyes were red and rimmed with tears and her lip was quivering. She looked heartbroken for her son, her joy. "Chloe," her aunt whispered. At that moment Chloe ran to her aunt and kneeled to hug her as she began to cry. "Oh, I missed you, lovely, I'm so sorry that this is the reason we saw each other again." Carrie saw Wanda standing there awkwardly, with a sad look on her face. She was thinking about what would have happened if her brother had passed.

Carrie saw that pained look on the girl's face and opened an arm for Wanda to join the hug. She looked confused for a moment and was about to say for them to enjoy the moment when Cathie pushed her forward a little. The two looked at each other and then Wanda joined the family hug. It felt nice to be hugged for no reason, to have someone care for you.

Much quicker than anyone wanted they separated, and Carrie gave a weak smile to the girl in front of her. Chloe sat next to her aunt and Wanda across from her. She held her aunt's hand as she began to explain what was happening over the course of the next few days. "Your uncle's are at the funeral parlor preparing everything. Tomorrow we will finish off prepping and Saturday are the services." Carrie became more upset and Chloe rubbed her arm with her free hand.

"Whatever you need Aunt Carrie, we can-"

"Can you sing for him?" Carrie asked abruptly. She hardly ever interrupted anyone but as the request sunk in she knew why. "He always loved it when you sang, like at David and I's wedding. I thought it could put you at ease and make him happy." Carrie knew this would be hard for her niece, but she wanted her son to be happy. Plus she would get one more chance to sing to him.

Chloe smiled with tears in her eyes, "of course Aunt Carrie. I'd be honored." She would do anything to make her family happy right now, and if that meant singing, she sure as hell would.

Chloe began to introduce Wanda and was about to explain that she and her uncle were Avengers when a deep voice followed by baritone and tenor voices began to come near the house. The pounding of their feet made their way into the house as what sounded like an argument continued.

The front door slammed and they dropped their bags on the floor. The deep voice held out the vowel in mum, " _Mum_ , we's home! Do you have any sweets?"

The sound of the three walking towards the kitchen made Chloe smile, she loved messing with them. "Sorry, I didn't get you anything at the airport." One stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened at the sight of his cousin. One walked into him and the other into him.

They all had the same expressions until the all yelled "Chloe!" They rushed forward to hug the girl. They hadn't seen each other since February and the boys had missed her. Despite them being 2, 4, 6 years younger than her the three felt compelled to take care of her. Even before Joey died they felt that. They felt the same to Tori, they were the only female cousins they had.

"Hello boys," she smiled taking turns hugging them. "I missed you all." She turned to Wanda, "boys, this is Wanda she's one of my best friends. Wanda this is Johnny." Johnny was the shortest of the three, he was about two inches shorter than Wanda but was taller than Chloe (like everyone else). He had blonde hair that was not nearly as pale as the rest of the family's, sun kissed skin, long limbs, and a build that was still building.

"This is Joesph, or Joe." Joesph was about three inches taller than Wanda but seemed bigger. He had wide shoulders. He was pale with blue eyes as well.

"And this is James," the last boy was built similarly to her brother but was colored like Chloe. He was around six foot with large muscles and a large frame. His skin was pale as the moon and had the same eyes as Chloe. His longer blonde hair was thrown into a man bun. "Oh James, no _flirting!"_

Wanda and James both blushed. "Oh come off it Clo', that was one time! I didn't know you hated the girl to pieces." James looked mortified, he had no idea the girl he was flirting with hated Chloe.

Chloe smiled and rubbed his shoulders, "I'm busting your stones James, it's in the past. I would never hold that against you." She didn't really mind, Chloe herself didn't hate the girl it was the other way around.

James quickly pulled Chloe into a hug which she yelped in surprise. "Mum, we's taking Chloe and her friend to Archie's! Love you, bye!" James yelled despite his mother being a few feet from him. Cathie chided him on his grammar, that he was in secondary school for a reason. James wrapped his arm around Chloe and escorted her to the door. Joseph and Johnny both moved out of the doorway and motioned for Wanda to go first.

Wanda felt very relaxed with the three cousins, they laughed and made jokes the whole way. They made her feel right at home with them, something Chloe did as well. The getting to know you questions weren't awkward for any of them which happened often.

At one point the boys starting running and Chloe yelled out, "wait for me, I have little legs!" So Joseph crouched down for Chloe to jump on his back and she did with out hesitation. James ran back and did the same for Wanda and after a second she did as well. The two started racing and Johnny made commentary that made the two boys almost fall over laughing making the race even longer.

In the end it was a tie because they were all laughing so hard nobody saw who got there first. They were still giggly as the entered the pub. It had dark wood furniture, dark green walls, and white tiles. It seemed very Irish for somewhere in England, but comforting.

"Hey Arch'," the three boys flicked their hands up in a wave like gesture and showed the girls to the booth they normally sat in.

A very Irish accent yelled out and a man appeared from under the counter. His hair was a mess and he looked like he had just woke up. The Irish voice called out again, "Bleeding Christ, Arch', me Nanny looks better than ye and she's in a bleedin' wooden onesie!" The boys laughed and Chloe explained the Irish slang (meaning that his grandmother looked better even though she was dead) to her friend who then laughed.

The man walked over to the table and went to get their drink orders. "Arch' we're you takin' a kip down there?" Joseph asked the owner, "you look like shite!" His younger brother whacked him.

Archie then introduced himself, he got Wanda's name first then turned to Chloe, "oh, I know you." He turned and walked away. Chloe playfully threw her hands in the air and shook her head.

"Archie's not always like this. He's been a grump the past few days," Johnny noted. It was true, but they didn't say it had all started when Bobby went into the hospital again. Archie had a soft spot for their cousin and he probably wasn't sleeping right again. He was the one who suggested that Chloe had insomnia like him. "There must be something in the water." The three brothers shrugged.

The Irish voice spoke again, "that's why I drink the whiskey!"

Once Archie came back with their drinks and they order their food more kids around the boy's age came into the pub. They would wave to Archie and take a seat. Majority came over to their table giving their condolences about Bobby, said pleasantries to Chloe, and introduced themselves to Wanda. They all went to the school with the siblings and their male cousin and were nothing but nice. They all offered for Chloe and Wanda to come over for 'a cup'.

The cook, the Irish voice, came out to give them their food, apologizing for Archie. "I asked the lad to get me a scrubber t'ree hours ago, but he fell asleep while lookin' for it. He hasn't been sleppin' so I let 'em nap 'til the schoolkids came a knockin'. Enjoy." He handed the last plate to James and rubbed Chloe's shoulder. Kevin, the Irish voice, wanted to say something about her brother, how good of a person he was. All of the kids did, but they knew if it made tough James and Joseph cry it would tear little Chloe apart.

* * *

Chloe stared at herself in the mirror; she didn't want to be here. Of course she wanted to see her family, of course she wanted to go to England. She loved coming to visit them every spring break. Chloe loved tooling around the small town or taking rides to other historic places (except she would never let the boys take her to Ireland again). She loved visiting England very much, but she didn't want to be _here._ Standing in the mirror, getting ready for her fourteen year old cousin's funeral.

Two family members in five months, that was too much for her. Chloe did not adjust to change well; she was a creature of habit, a homebody, something she inherited from Bruce. Two too many deaths for her, she was still grieving her grandfather's death that happened well over five years ago. She was not ready for more deaths. One being her sickly cousin and one her brother. Neither should have been buried; she shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be there because he shouldn't be dead, nobody should be dead. No mother should have to bury her child and no twin sister should plan her seventeen year old brother's funeral. Bobby was too young and so was her brother. But then again everybody was too young to die. They did not deserve to die.

Both Bobby and Joey had so much to live for, so much potential that wasn't scratched. They should have grown old, had lives, Joey should have had children and Bobby could adopt (with his disease it was not smart for him to have children). They should have found someone to love them for who they were, quirks and all. They shouldn't have to be put to rest before they truly begin their lives. Bobby and Joey should not have had to worry about the things they did worry about. Bobby shouldn't have had to worry if he walked to much that he would go into cardiac arrest or if his head was just hurting or he was sick. Joey shouldn't have had to worry about if his twin sister's mental state or if his baby sister was going to wake up kicking and screaming again. They were so freaking young to have such heavy weights on their shoulders!

They shouldn't be buried right now, one already under and one on his way to the grave. They always said God took the best of us to be his angels. To look out for the people who didn't have people like them to guide them in their lives. Bobby and Joey were good candidates, they were the best for the job. That's why they were going.

But the smallest caskets are always the heaviest.

Wanda leaned on the doorway looking at her newfound friend. Chloe didn't register her friend there or the sound of her grandmother in the bathroom. She just stared at her reflection. She went very light on her makeup, because she knew she would be crying a lot today. Just (waterproof) eyeliner, mascara, lip gloss, and her palest foundation since it was the closest to her shade. Bobby always said or signed "beautiful" when he saw her without makeup, but she felt awkward without it. So minimal was the compromise.

Wanda walked up to her friend lightly putting her hands on her arms. Chloe had asked Wanda to check on her thought throughout the next few days, just to be safe. Wanda had planned to just discretely as possible. Of course she knew that it maybe considered rude and Chloe might be mad, but if it meant that she could stop Chloe from being reckless she would do it in a heartbeat.

Chloe looked at Wanda with heavy eyes. She wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep until it was over; that's how she dealt with things. It didn't help that she didn't sleep last night, she just sat up staring at her lap. Her eyes were once again losing emotion; when she first came to the tower they held little emotion, just complete and utter misery and tension. And then slowly but surely other more joyful emotions seeped into her eyes, but they were now long gone.

"Girls," Arlene leaned in the doorway looking worriedly at Chloe, "we better get going." They nodded and followed her to the car and then went to the church.

The funeral was a sad one, but when aren't they? It was an opened casket with all his favorite things around him. He had a stuffed bear with him, another stuffed something, a cross necklace, a copy of _A Wrinkle In Time,_ and pack of gum. Wanda didn't know much about funerals, having never been to one, but it seemed appropriate. Chloe explained the items to Wanda. The stuffed bear was one of his favorites because it was gray like the colors he always saw, the other stuffed animal was a Chewbacca (Bobby loved Star Wars) the cross necklace was a gift he got when he made his first communion, the book was his favorite of all time, and Bobby loved gum.

Bobby looked like a carbon copy of Joseph but was smaller. Though his face was structured differently because of his down syndrome, but you could still see the resemblance. He was pale and had light blonde hair like most everyone in their family. And he was tiny, he looked about nine but was fourteen. Bobby also looked content lying there, at peace even.

Most of the family stood near the casket to thank the people for coming, except James. He sat in a seat with his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands. His face was stone, but still tears dripped down his face. James didn't cry, that was a fact. It was just who he was, he pushed away sadness like it was made of paper, but today he couldn't. Today reality hit far to close to home and he could barely handle it. He was trying to hold it together for his family's sake, they didn't even need to see that. He wouldn't talk to his girlfriend who came to support him.

Far too soon the casket was closed and the three siblings and Chloe put a blanket on top. Then mass began and Wanda had no clue what she was doing. Because 1) She hadn't been to church in literal years 2) Church's in Sokovia were very different, and 3) She was Jewish. It was up, down, kneel, stand, sit, sing, say certain phrases. Chloe would have explained what they were doing, but she thought Wanda knew.

Some people went up and gave eulogies, some from the bible and some were written. But Chloe went last; she went up to the alter and bowed for a second (something everyone did) and stood behind the casket. She was going to sing for her cousin, one last time. She didn't have a guitar or any other instrument for that matter because she needed her hands. As she sang she signed the lyrics.

 _I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them, and we help them in return. Well I don't know if I believe that's true; but I know I'm who I am today, because I knew you. Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun, like a stream that meets a boulder, halfway through the wood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you I have been changed for good. It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime, so let me say before we part: so much of me is made of what I learned from you. You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart. And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have re-written mine by being my friend. Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea, like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you. Because I knew you, I have been changed, For Good. And just to clear the air, I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for. But then, I guess we know there's blame to share. And none of it seems to matter anymore. Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea, like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? I do believe I have been changed for the better. And because I knew you. Because I knew you. Because I knew you. I have been changed For Good._

It took Wanda's all not to cry. She had heard Chloe sing before yes, she heard her singing along on her guitar, when they listened to Hamilton, and in videos she had seen, but that was different. You could hear the emotion in her voice, the pure sorrow of loss in her voice. You could hear her trying to keep it together through the pain. You could also hear the sincerity in every word she sang. Chloe did believe she had been changed for the better because she knew Bobby. She couldn't have picked a better song for the occasion. Because she did believe she had been changed for the better and because she knew him she had been changed For Good.

The services ended and they all took a drive to the graveyard to lay Bobby to his rest. The priest spoke before they did but Wanda's mind wandered. She wondered what would her parents funeral would be like if they had one. There were no services because there weren't bodies nor could they afford it. But Wanda still wondered what it would be like. Would many people come like they did for Bobby's or would it just be the twins? Would they have been in caskets like Bobby or would they be cremated? Would people cry besides the twins?

One by one people laid a rose on the casket, something Wanda had never seen before. She would later find out it replaces people throwing dirt on top. Of course Carrie and her husband David went first as they were the parents. David had adopted Bobby years ago and helped raise him. Wanda went with Chloe and wished she had known him because he seemed like such a good kid. But what hurt Wanda was the two older boys; they stood there each with a rose in hand but didn't do anything for a moment. The tears rolled down their slightly bowed faces and dripped onto the roses which than dripped onto the casket.

The younger of the three came up and placed his rose down to show his brother's it was okay. "Godspeed, and may the force be with you," he whispered. It was a running joke between the cousins, when they said goodluck or goodbye they said the same phrase.

After that they all went to a restaurant to get an early lunch before returning to Arlene's house. Carrie was waiting to go back to her house, she had so many memories of her son there. It hurt to look at the rooms and not see him in one. But Chloe asked if she could take Wanda over, to show her different things. Her Aunt Cathie just smiled all-knowingly and said to take their time.

Carrie, David, and Bobby's house was just two streets from her grandmother's; Chloe explained that when she and her first husband split up she moved in with her mom so she could help with the baby. Then she moved just two blocks away so her mother would be close in case anything happened.

Chloe walked right in because the door was unlocked. Who would steal from a family who just lost the youngest member? And plus, James' muscles scared people off. She showed Wanda around the house and just pointed to her aunt and uncles room (it would be rude to go in their room). She took a breath and opened the door to Bobby's room.

It was a nerd's paradise. The bed sheets were _Star Wars_ and the dresser shelves were covered in books galore. There were also two bookshelves that had every type of book imaginable. The floor had light green carpet that felt soft underfoot. The walls had Sci-Fi movie or book posters and drawings. The drawings were done by hand, some in pencil and some in odd colors or watercolors. All had the same initials claiming it: CCS for Chloe Charlotte Schuyler.

Wanda walked to a drawing of an odd character and studied it, "these are neuveriteľné!" She couldn't think of an English word to describe the drawings. Sure the characters looked different but there was so much detail in each drawing.

"You think that's cool, look at that!" She pointed up to the ceiling. It was a beautiful painting of the solar system on the ceiling. The light fixture was the sun itself while the planets circled around it in orbit. They were all at different places in their orbit but she drew their orbits. Then there were the stars surrounding the whole thing, there were so many stars around the planets it would take days to count them all. And of course in between Earth and Mars a _Star Wars_ space ship was there. There was so much detail in the painting it seemed in would take forever to think of let alone make.

"You painted this?" Wanda asked marveling at the sight of the small scale space.

"Me and JJ did," Chloe blushed, it seemed heavy since she was pale. "I drew it all out, JJ helped me paint it because my arms were tired, and I did the shading. With the both of us it only took five days." She smiled at the memory of painting, she had gotten paint all over her face and accidentally went to dinner with some on.

Wanda just stood there staring at the painting, it seemed so intricate yet simple at the same time. And for five days this was amazing. She couldn't believe all the effort that must have went into planning this design. She had seen some of Chloe concept art and her quick sketches and had no idea how she had done that. All of her art was remarkable. Her singing was remarkable.

It seemed that Chloe was just a remarkable person.

* * *

 _ **Translation:**_

 _ **Neuveriteľné!- Incredible! (Slovak)**_

 _ **Please review if you can!**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, self-destructive thoughts, self-hate, rape, verbal abuse, phyical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I did not like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale.**_ _ **I saw Infinity Wars and I will tell you NOTHING. Though I will say I am very shookth because {insert spoilers here}. So let's be like Doctor Strange who saw over fourteen million endings and didn't spoil it for us. If you want to talk/rant about it PM me I will listen and respond.**_

 _ **Warning: mentions of nightmares/terrors, PTSD, bad self-image, body hate, sunburn, pain disorder, New Jersey slang, (american) football terms that Goggle helped with, Chloe and everyone fluffiness, Natasha and Bruce cute moment, THOR, CLINT, a small scene from a different characters pov, kinda seems like a filler chapter for a bit but then somethings happen and someone makes a move (cue Twilight Zone music)**_

 _ **Thank you**_ ** _a_ _bstract0118,_** _ **Multifanfom-Dork, for reviewing.**_

 _ **Sorry it has been so long since I updated, I've been busy. School may have let out but I have been crazy busy. I was sick and my summer camp and school over lapped, I didn't get a day break! I started my camp the day after school ended. I go to a theatre program from 9-3 five days a week. I have like 10 days until my show. I have to learn the dances of the little kids (like 10-13 year olds) while I'm 17! And on top of all of that BOTH of my grandmothers are staying with me. One is just visiting for a month or so, but the other is living with us indefinitely (and she's the mean one!). Pray for me.**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel unfortunately,or the Winnie The Pooh characters, Pixie Stix, Smarties, Nerds, York Peppermint Patties, Bill Nye The Science Guy (BILL BILL BILL BILL), The Magic School Bus, The Ring ;only my OCs**_

* * *

After crashing in Chloe's bed for hours (Wanda claimed it was a shorter walk than to her room) the two friends were pulled out of bed and forced to sit at a meeting. Steve was extremely confused when he went to Chloe's room and found said girl and Wanda asleep and somewhat cuddling. Wanda had her arm thrown around the younger girl, she had picked up the trait because Chloe had put it there in her sleep. Her brother would do that (he claimed because he had nowhere else to put it since he took up so much room).

So the two girls were forced into the lounge, still half asleep. Chloe had a blanket wrapped around her and they both had a cup of tea in their hands. They both loved tea, Chloe said it was the English in her. When Wanda saw the literal cabinet space Cathie had for tea alone she was ecstatic. Tea was luxury back in Sokovia, a luxury she didn't get. And she finally met someone who didn't put cream in their tea.

Tony and Cap explained that they were taking a few days for relaxation, to get to know each other better. They were a team and should know many things about each other. Which they didn't. Plus they needed some rest after the toll they took during Sokovia.

So they were told to pack for beach weather and for at least five days. And they could bring their uniforms and workout clothes if they wanted. There would be little working out though, it was mostly to distress.

They all stood except for Chloe who had fallen asleep sitting up, Wanda kept nudging her and calling her softly. It wasn't working; nobody wanted to yell because then she would be scared. Bruce had an idea, he stood next to her and said, " _Piglet."_

Chloe's eyes opened and she squinted at Bruce. Her face was turning red, she hated that nickname. "Why you do that?" She asked softly. "It has been literal years since anybody has called me that."

Sam was the one who asked what it meant and Bruce explained. "We called her _Piglet_ and Joey was _Tigger_ , because of the characters from _Winnie The Pooh._ She was always tiny as a kid and nervous. And Joey had a tendency to knock people over and was always hyper and forgetful. Plus she and Joey _loved Winnie The Pooh_ as little kids." Chloe hid her face as she took a sip from her mug. She couldn't believe she responded to it. She usually hated being called that, it made her feel like people were pointing out what was wrong with her. Yes, she was tiny, but it wasn't her fault.

But hey, at least she was good at hide-n-go-seek.

* * *

Thor was for once happy to be on Midgard, sorry Earth, he was not used to calling it that. Usually he was here for battles, particularly because of Loki. His brother had banished him here, tried to take over the realm, er planet, and then he had to find Loki's scepter. He was tired of cleaning up his brother's messes.

Once he had entered Stark had told him of a trip to the beach and once he found out what that would entail he was delighted. It would be good to spend time with his friends that didn't involve fighting. He had yet to be informed of Bruce's niece Chloe so when he entered the kitchen he was surprised to see a new person there.

Chloe happened to look up from her book to see an extremely tall and buff man looking at her. He looked to be studying her intently and it kind of scared her. She yelped and covered her face with her book like it would help her. "I am sorry," Thor apologized, "and who are you?"

Chloe peered over her book and looked at him for a second. She had seen him in videos of the team fighting so she assumed she could trust him. She slowly lowered her book, still scared of his giant form. "Uh, I'm Chloe, Bruce's niece."

"Well, hello, Lady Chloe," he smiled friendly. He knew she was scared by him.

"It's just Chloe," she said closing her book. He towered over her tremendously, but then again so did pretty much everyone else.

Thor noted how tiny she was, well all humans were tiny to him, but she was just pathetically short. She was just tiny in general and meek, it seemed. Though she did have curves that struck to him as odd for someone her size. "Well it is an honor to meet you," he said and clapped her on the back. He should of taken account of his strength and her tiny frame. He knew nothing of her pain disorder and how sensitive she was to touch. She yelped out again, but this time in pain. "I apologize," He quickly moved his hand back.

She shook her head, hoping it would hide her tears. "It's fine, you didn't know, plus I think you helped with the spasm in my shoulder." She rolled her shoulder to show him. Just then her uncle entered and greeted his friend and kissed his niece on the head. She turned to the counter and picked up a bag. "I got you chocolate bars, licorice the good kind not the black stuff, _Pixie Stixs, Smarties, Nerds,_ _York Peppermint Patties,_ and a slushie." She turned and grabbed the drink for him. "You said you wanted something sugary and I could chose what I wanted." She shrugged.

Bruce was so happy (and sleep deprived). He was running low on energy and wanted to get as much done as he could before their trip and they were leaving in a few minutes. Caffeine did little to make him wake if he hadn't just woke up, his body had been drinking caffeine long before it should have. It only gave him a small kick to get him going. But sugar kept him going. He did not have have much sugar as a kid, his coffee black, his pancakes had no syrup, and other things weren't sweet. His parents had grown up poor and weren't used to a lot of sugar so neither were their kids. His siblings didn't do well with sugar either; they bounced off the walls and didn't listen. But then the euphoria would end and they would crash. He just learned to not do that.

He pointed at her. "Lifesaver," was Bruce said as he looked through the bag. He couldn't even form a proper sentence as he looked at the candy. He remembered passing through the park to get to and from school with Jamie eating this stuff as fast as the could so his parents wouldn't suspect a thing and then eating _more_ at home.

Chloe tilted her head, "you didn't ask for those." Chloe didn't understand he was just very tired and couldn't put 'you're a' in front of lifesaver. He just wrapped an arm around her and hugged her from the side.

A little while later the team and Clint who was coming to see everyone, boarded a jet to go away for awhile. Missions would be held unless it was 100% necessary. The team did need a break, they were very on edge. The tension between Steve and Tony was extreme so they decided to try to do some 'bonding'. So they team would be doing the same because tensions were high between everyone and the twins and Bucky. Chloe was just along for the ride.

Chloe leaned back in her seat next to Wanda, she was asleep. Her dream was starting and Wanda "tuned in" to make sure she was not having a nightmare. She had been having them sometimes during her sleep. Sometimes she had the terrors or sometimes she just dreamed away. Wanda had gotten Chloe's permission to 'rest' in her mind. Wanda's dreams haunted her as well; sometimes it was the experiments, or those two days trapped in rubble, hard missions, or what would have happened if her brother had died. But Chloe's mind (when not having a nightmare) was very peaceful compared to hers. And sometimes she dreamed of memories that clued Wanda into her life, like this one.

* * *

 _The first noticeable thing was the heat index. The high index made the weather seem unbearable. It was thick and heavy, laying like a skin tight blanket that was slowly choking life away. The grip was strong and was not yearning to let go. The heat index was woven into the heat itself, intricately. It made the heat seem much worse than the mildness it was. Both wrapped up and held on like it was glued._

 _In reality it was not that hot outside. It was due to the fact they were in a garage with the one garage door partially open not letting cooler air circulate. The sun was filtering through and created enough light to see with ease, but since work was being done the lights were on and a handheld mechanical work light was set on the car. A boy was bent over the hood of an old black car, clearly working on it. He had a tight sleeveless tank top on (a wife beater) and a pair of jeans._

 _Chloe was sitting on a table to the side. She had his tools next to her so if he needed them she could hand them to him. Her hair was was split in half over her shoulders and fell into her lap. She was slightly hunched over and was examining her nails with rapt attention._

 _The sound of soft music played through the radio next to her, it was in Italian, but the two could understand it just fine. Besides the music the boy hunched over the car was talking to Chloe. He was slightly ranting about the JV (Junior Varsity) football team that was now soon to be part of the Varsity team,_ his _team. He was the youngest captain in their school's history for a reason and they were coming up to him and telling him that they should get playing time this year. What players they should cut so they could play. "They're throwing interceptions right and left and the one kid doesn't know what a fake punt is or why playing can be dangerous. Even you know about Joe Theismann!" He didn't mean to make a dig at Chloe, it was just she was in no way shape or form an expert on football, but she knew about that career-ending play that changed football._

 _"Do you think Uncle B is dead?" Chloe blurted out without thinking. She almost slapped her hand over her mouth for asking such a question. It was a rule not to talk about it; her mom would yell about it and just thinking about it made Chloe upset. She had been so busy listening to her brother rant that she didn't realize that had slipped into her subconscious._

 _There was a bang and a string of curses in Italian from the boy under the hood. The work light was shut off and he pulled a towel that had been hanging out of his back pocket. Joey wiped his hands as he walked toward her. He leaned on the work table she was sitting on and reached over to turn off the radio. "_ Chiarire _," was all he said._

 _Chloe hugged her elbows and thought the table she was sitting on was very interesting. "It's just, well, maybe, I don't know, he hasn't talked to any of us. Not even Jamie, and they're as thick as thieves. He just magically disappeared after an experiment gone wrong, that's not Uncle B. He hasn't had_ braccia rubate all'agricoltura, _or anything in that nature. But that's not Uncle B. He wouldn't just walk away from his dreams, his livelihood for a bad move." She looked up at him shyly._

 _Joey sighed, he was not expecting to have this conversation with her. He probably should have, but he didn't want to upset her. "I will admit the story has plot holes-"_

 _"More like plot caverns."_

"Anyway _, I'm sure there's more to it. You know Gram would tell us all the juicy details and_ non avere peli sulla lingua _if she knew. So maybe he didn't tell her because he was scared or didn't want the attention. I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason. And you and I both know he doesn't have a kid, he doesn't have the guts to get a girl, let alone get her pregnant," Chloe chuckled and looked up at her brother. "_ _Una sorella è un dono per il cuore, un amico per lo spirito, un filo d'oro al significato della vita." That was something he always said and never failed to cheer her up. It was a meaningful phrase to say how special sisters were._

 _"Thanks JJ," Chloe said, "I'd hug you but you're sweaty." Then Joey kept trying to hug her, tickling her in the process. "Stop!" She giggled while trying to push his hands off her sides. "It tickles," she began to squeak in protest, "stop I gotta go get ready for ballet." She finally wiggled her way out of his grasp._

 _"Need a lift?" Joey asked motioning his head to the car. "I fixed the thingy thing." Contrary to popular belief, Joey's specialty was sports, everyone thought he was a meathead who loved both sports and cars but that wasn't true. When it reality his seven year old sister told him how to fix the car._

 _"Nah," Chloe said looking at their car Zoey as she walked away, "dad's gotta run some places, he said he'd take me. Besides you never put the seat back. You're too tall." Chloe always had the seat pulled as far up as it could go while Joey had it all the way back._

 _"Well grow!" He called back and she turned away, smirking as she entered the house._

* * *

Wanda smiled as she opened her eyes. She loved how easy going both Joey and this Chloe were. They joked with each other and talked with the other.

It reminded Wanda of how she and Pietro acted. They truly cared for each other. Both brothers seemed to think that they did most of caring for their sisters but both girls could attest the level of caring was shared. Both sets of siblings doted on each other.

For awhile, their twin was all they had in their minds. Wanda and Pietro literally only had each other and the clothes on their backs plus what they could carry. Chloe literally only had Joey to depend on; Bruce was gone, their father was home but a part of him was MIA, their mother was who knows where, and the rest of their family was thousands of miles away.

But unlike the Maximoffs the Schuyler twins did not get such a happy ending where they were together. For a while yes there was happiness, their happiness was named Tori. But then Joey had died and Chloe was sent away from one of the few people she cared for.

But here Chloe was smiling in her sleep. Her smiles were rare, even to Bruce and Wanda, but here she smiled, happily. She was not hiding from anything now, she was not trying to impress people enough so they did not hate her or she was trying not to make her uncle look bad. Here she was Chloe.

"Pietro?" Wanda got her brothers attantion. "Switch with me? I want to talk to Vision and I do not want to make you uncomfortable." That was not the entire reason, she knew her brother was itching to be close to her and Chloe was unsure of how she felt. She felt something, but she was too busy trying to ignore it to see it.

Pietro grumbled, partially because he did not want to move but he did not want to seem like he would jump to sit next to Chloe. Still he switched with Wanda and she gave him a ten dollar bill she claimed to owe Chloe.

The elder Maximoff sat there for a few minutes casually stealing glances out of the corner of her eye. She looked very comfortable curled up in her seat. Suddenly she shifted in her sleep and leaned on Pietro. His eyes widened; did she naturally feel this comfortable, did she think Wanda was next to her, or was she just tired? Still her she was leaning on him. He shifted his arm so that it was around her while she leaned on him so it would be more comfortable for both parties.

Bruce happened to look over at his niece to see her cuddling with Pietro. He was not happy unlike pretty much everyone else. Everyone else had seen the writing on the wall and had known that the Sokovian had a _huge_ crush on the pale girl. And they could see that she was unsure of how to feel. The tension was getting annoying.

"Glaring at the kid ain't gonna make him go away, I know, I've tried" Bruce now fixed his glare on Clint who was trying not to chuckle at him. "I would say that they're good for each other, but let's be real here, nobody in this room is good enough for her."

"What about Cap over here?" Sam asked hitching a thumb at the blushing man. He was still getting used to public displays of affection.

Bruce shrugged, "eh. Still she's my niece and _he_ shouldn't be near anywhere close to _her."_ He grumbled. He didn't want to have this conversation, he'd prefer not to worry if her heart would be broken. "She's not ready for love, especially _that_ kind of love."

Ignoring Bruce's comment Natashsa tried to get him to see things their way. "But what if her brother was here?"

Bruce scoffed, "if Joey was here he'd be on the floor and Chloe would be with her brother. You think _I'm_ protective, you don't understand my nephew." It was a little unhealthy at how much Joey protected Chloe but the truth was she needed it. She never fought for herself, only others. Someone needed to tell her that she needed to be heard. Chloe needed someone to tell her how special and amazing she was. She needed assurance.

Plus Bruce and Joey headed his father's advice about taking care of others. And not just girls and their family, but everyone as well. Everybody needed to be taken care of at some point, some more than others. Except people who abused others, they were on their own. Abuse was not tolerated under any circumstance.

As they started their descent Pietro decided to wake Chloe. He didn't want her to be too groggy or her get scared when the touched down (something Wanda had mentioned happening). So he began whispering softly to her. He didn't know if she was a light sleeper or not but he assumed she was. It only took about ten seconds for her eyes to flutter open.

She looked confused for a moment but then jumped when she saw where she was. "Sorry," she was blushing profusely. It was something Pietro didn't understand but would probably never tire of. He didn't understand why she blushed so easily, was she always that uncomfortable? What had made her think that? But she looked so adorable when she blushed.

"It is fine," he smiled at her but her eyes would not meet his, "I would have woken you if it bothered me."

Pietro thought he sounded assuring, but his words were not apparently. Chloe looked up at him, "but you didn't originally have your arm around me though. You moved it to make yourself more comfortable, meaning at some point, you were bothered." Chloe had an extreme habit of over analyzing things, something she had learned.

She always over thought everything. It was like those two giants in Greek myths. She couldn't remember their names, but the were brothers (possibly twins). One over thought everything, trying to find every flaw, while the other never thought through anything. That was a very accurate description of her and her brother.

Pietro looked shocked; not because she over thought it but because she did not trust his answers. Was she just that untrusting, or did she secretly hate him? Couldn't she see how he was trying to get her to trust him? Why did she doubt everything?

Pietro decided to change the subject and held out the ten dollar bill. "Wanda said she owed you money." Chloe looked over at his twin to see her in a deep conversation with Vision. Wanda looked at her and stuck her tongue out while Chloe smirked.

Just then Bruce came over and put an arm around her. He sent a glare to Pietro a silent way to tell him not to mess with her. Bruce was not about to let her have her heart broken again. She was fragile and Pietro didn't know how to take of her. He didn't know her, but Bruce didn't know how close the two became.

The house was owned by Tony of course what didn't he own? It was far too large for a just him and Pepper and now was a good time to put it too good use. It was large and spacious but still felt homey. It was cleaned and had a beach house vibe even with all the expensive furniture in it.

But because there were so many of them they had to share rooms. All three girls were together (but Nat could stay with her man which earned Tony a smack), Steve and Bucky, Sam and Rhoadey, Thor and Clint, Bruce and Vision were all stuck together. Bruce didn't mind, it couldn't be any worse than sharing a room with his brother.

So they were left to unpack and relax. They were going out tonight to eat. So the three girls retired to their rooms to unpack and get ready.

Wanda got in the shower first, Chloe opted to shower later, while Nat finished unpacking. When Nat walked in she smirked at Chloe's creativity. Their bathroom was a his and hers style, meaning two sinks that were connected with a drawer in the middle. Chloe sat on the counter top cross legged with one of the mirror medicine cabinets opened. It was right at her level when she sat and she got to sit while applying makeup. Nat decided to give credit were credit was earned. "That's smart Chloe."

Chloe turned as she rubbed in some foundation. "Thanks, I do this at home. Standing for so long hurts my leg since the accident, so if I fits I sits." She admitted. She continued to apply makeup so lazily it was a wonder how it looked flawless. But she had years of practice, even before she was forced to wear it she wore makeup often, she was on stage a lot. So, she was used to applying makeup, she had to learn to tone it down.

Soon they all had left for a Hibachi restaurant, once there Chloe had to tell the waiter that she was deathly allergic to shrimp. To which she saw the waiter point to her and say "no shrimp for her or death", she wondered if he meant her or the cook. Bruce questioned her saying that because he remembered her loving shrimp. He remembered his father taking them to a seafood place and Chloe bingeing on coconut fried shrimp and rolls.

"Yeah, I became allergic when I was like twelve. I was eating shrimp scampi one day and had an allergic reaction. Since then I can't eat shrimp, if I touch it I get hives, I even tried cooking it for my brother and the steam alone bothered me. And it is terrible because I love shrimp." Chloe had loved eating the food and also making it. It was a way for her and her grandmother to bond; every year they would make _The Feast Of The Seven Fishes_ at Christmas time. They spent weeks prepping and days cooking and they always did it together. But since she can not go near shrimp she is not allowed to help out.

The next day was fun; they went to the beach in the backyard. It was a private property so no one else was there, it was just the team relaxing. Wanda and Pietro were like little kids in the ocean; their home country of Sokovia was land locked by other countries and they could never afford a trip to the beach. Pietro kept using his super speed to drench his sister in the water and she used her powers to do the 'why are you hitting yourself' thing.

And though it didn't look it, Chloe was having fun. She had made a fort out of towels hanging over beach chairs beach chairs and was reading comfortably beneath it. She was fine reading all day, by herself. She was perfectly content. When she first walked outside and was standing there she whispered to Wanda 'I can literally feel the sun burning my skin'.

"Hey, Chlo' c'mon," Steve tried to persuade her thinking she was lonely, "the water's nice." He thought that she was uncomfortable with all of them or didn't want to be seen in a bathing suit. But what she didn't know is Steve was originally trying to drag Bucky outside, he didn't want people to see his metal arm. But when he saw Chloe walk outside, with majority of her scar showing, he followed. Steve than questioned if he liked her but Bucky denied it saying he liked having a conversation with someone besides Steve who was quieter than him and didn't judge him.

Chloe blushed because she could feel everyone's gaze on her. "No thanks, I don't feel like getting burnt to a crisp. I'll stay her in the shade with my book." She returned to her book. Just then her little fort clasped on her and she yelped. "This is why I stay inside," she mumbled. Chloe quickly cleaned up her fort and then went inside.

Chloe most likely would have stayed out longer if she had her hair braided, her wet suit, and a sunblock with a higher SPF. If her hair was braid her scalp, where her part was, would not have gotten burnt. She would have to move her part if she did not want to hit the burn or open one of the blisters she was bound to get. And with her wet suit less of her skin would be available for the sun to burn, and with a higher SPF sunblock, she would just get less burnt.

Chloe sat on the couch and flipped on the T.V, automatically going to Netflix. She watched more of it than she cared to admit. She heard the back door open and knew it was uncle just by his walk. He sat down next to her; not a word was spoken. They never needed to speak to know what the other was thinking, they could have an entire conversation without speaking. Bruce knew she was not comfortable and did not want to get sunburn (though she was pink from being outside for so little time). And Chloe knew he was not a huge beach person despite being from a coastal town.

"Yo, they have _Bill Nye The Science Guy_ on here!" Chloe exclaimed they shared a look and she put it on.

So Natasha found them watching the 90's show, but sitting on the floor with animal crackers on the table and bobbing to the theme song. She was confused for a moment, she went to make sure everything was okay. Everything was, Bruce was chuckling and nudging Chloe with his shoulder. He had a smile and seemed to be interested in the show. Chloe saw Nat and motioned for her to join them and after a moment she did. She did no want to interrupt their family time, but seeing Bruce relaxed sealed the deal. So she watched the very childish show, not understanding how much it meant to either of them.

Bruce later explained why it meant so much to them. "I wanted to go into the field of science, at the time I didn't know what exactly, but nobody I knew was into science. My dad was a mechanic and my mom was a stay at home mom. The only things my sibling knew how to mix was alcohol, so I was on my own. But then I saw this show, I could learn different things from someone. It was funny and educational. And in school when they brought out that old box T.V, you know the one on wheels, and animal crackers, you knew you were watching _Bill Nye_ -"

"Or _The Magic School Bus!_ " Chloe added.

"Or that, you _knew_ it was going to be a good day." He finished. Nat smiled at that, it seemed nice compared to other things he had told her. It sounded a lot better than the Red Room, being forced to fight and kill at such a young age. The only videos they watched were execution videos that the young girls would critique. They did not have fun, they did not have emotions, because emotion was weakness.

That was one thing they had in common, loss of emotions as children. Nat's for survival and Bruce's out of fear. Nat's world was kill or be killed, nothing like regret or pity should stop her. Emotions caused you to hesitate, and that was not allowed. You get in, get the job, and get out. And if meant spreading your legs or making some tough calls so be it. Nat was taught to use her sexuality as a weapon. She was taught to use her curves to get what she wanted, information and/or access. Emotions stopped the flow of the plan.

While Bruce's mom forced a smile on everyone's face to hide that life was not all sunshine and rainbows. That she constantly picked fights with her husband, her two sets of twins were constantly partying and getting arrested (which needed to be paid off), and her genius youngest son was not a true Banner. He did not use his status -a deaf decorated war vet and a deaf mother who had charities' son who was smarter than his parents and siblings combined- as an excuse to get anything he wanted. He did not use to skip grades, he used his essays to do that. He didn't pay or have mommy and daddy pay for what he got. Basically, he did not manipulate people so he could use it against them so he did not have to get his hands dirty (well he did it somewhat to his brother, Johnny, when he got on his nerves and needed a ride somewhere). His father, did not know half of what was going on, the lying, the drugs, the yelling, and was Bruce was old enough to understand it and realize 'hey this isn't normal', he didn't have the heart to tell his dad. His dad was so proud of Bruce for not being like his siblings, but he felt that if he told his dad the truth, he would the problem, not his siblings.

The cards were not in either of their favors it seemed.

* * *

Chloe was not having as grand of a time as everyone else. She hated it; emotions sucked. There was no way she could have fun at the beach without her brother. She always went to the beach with him. She did everything with him, almost every memory she had her brother was in. He was like her shadow, always apart of her from the beginning of her life. He may have wanted her to live without him, but she had lost her other half. She had lost her sun and the moon could not glow without the sun. Her warmth and life had withered without the rays of her shining sun.

Chloe never learned to live on her own, she always had Joey. She never needed to fend for herself because her brother protected her. He only lived without her for the first few moments of his life and he joked that he was glad he couldn't remember them because they must have been hell because he was crying the whole time. They worked better together unlike most of the twins in their family who argued constantly. He calmed her ocean raging storms and she stopped him from accidentally walking off a cliff. He saved her from death so many times and she saved him from jumping the gun. They both were nowhere near perfect, but their best qualities made the other's less redeeming features hide away. Joey's bluntness made her laugh and Chloe's mind always stopped him from doing something dangerous. Chloe conjured the sentences while Joey vocalized them.

They were opposites; not just in looks, but in personas. Joey was louder, unafraid to say what he wanted, the talker, the charmer, the loving one, the caring type, the golden boy, the athlete, everybody's hero, the guy everybody wanted to be or to have. Chloe was more reserved, shier, book smart, thoughtful, refined, proper, emotional, somber, the quiet girl (which was surprising for a theatre kid), the bookworm. Chloe was always reading or studying for something, always ahead in her classes. Joey wasn't behind or dumb he just lost focus a lot and then got confused. She always tutored her brother in every subject she could. She would do anything for him, including give her life.

And the scariest thing about all of this was the man who killed her brother, her sun, her twin, _her other fucking half. H_ e was truly twisted and sick. Messing with her, hurting her, raping her like she was nothing. And yet, and yet, Chloe could not hate him, The truth was she still cared for him. She still missed the good times and was willing to forget the bad. She still cared deeply for him. Chloe somehow loved him, but not like she used to. Maybe love was a strong word but she felt something she shouldn't. For almost a year and a half she was surrounded by Brad, he texted her constantly to make sure she was where she said. He was a constant, he was almost all she thought about. How to make him happy, how to make him not hit her. Because she believed she deserved it, her mother had hit her before so who said he couldn't.

But than Pietro walked into her life, he was something new. He was a breath of fresh air, he was comforting. Chloe had realized a little while ago she started having the same feelings she felt with Brad, but they weren't the same. She did not question what the feelings meant, because she knew. She knew all to well. She questioned why she felt them, she still deeply cared for Brad. When she felt the rush of joy she felt as if she was cheating on Brad. But there was no betrayal on her her part, just his. Chloe knew deep down that she should be getting over him, but it felt wrong doing so. Her therapist told her to repeat the phrase 'I will move on' over and over again. Just telling herself that would help her get over him.

For two different people Chloe felt similar things as well as other emotions. Brad always made her feel like smiling, but Pietro made her feel like not just smiling, but nervous, and giddy, and nauseous all at once. But somehow when she was with the Avenger she felt comfortable, like those rush of emotions were 100% normal. But Chloe was not normal, she still cuddle things in her sleep and cried every time someone, even the villain, in a movie died.

Emotions sucked, because Chloe did not know how to feel now.

Because here she stood, in the beach house kitchen, leaning on the counter talking to Pietro. She had a mug of tea in her hand and found it very interesting as of now. Pietro had said she looked poised (he had seen it somewhere), that she looked composed and graceful. She wore a loose white peasant top with almost lace sleeves that stopped where her long purple skirt started. She wore no shoes and her hair fell in her normal almost curl like waves.

Chloe quickly covered her face, pulling her hair forward to play with it, to hide her blush. "Why do you do that?" Pietro set her mug down. "Why do you hide when I compliment you? You do know you are beautiful, no?" Chloe quickly hid her faace with her hands, not just to hide her blush but to hide her face. Pietro carefully removed her hands from her face and looked into her azure blue eyes.

And she looked into his electric blue eyes, "Because very few people tell me." Her gaze fell to his chest, whenever she admitted things she could never look in anyone's eyes. "My brother and grandfather told me a lot, and Bruce and my dad showed me because words are not their strong suit. They normally move my hair out of my face and smile when they see my face. I usually get more compliments from strangers." Chloe would usually be in the store or in a elevator for example and the clerk or whoever was near would say, 'I'm sorry to bother you, but you have very pretty eyes or hair'.

Pietro looked surprised at this, nobody told her how beautiful she was. If given the chance, he would constantly tell her how stunning she looked all the time. Pietro wanted her to know that she was worthy of love, something she did not believe. He was one day going into the lab to ask Bruce how Chloe was (something he did often) and he heard her say, 'Uncle B I don't understand how you can love me!' She doubt herself so much it almost physically hurt him, he wanted, no needed her to know that she was perfect.

And before he realized it he had moved her hair out of her angelic face. Before he realized it he had taken a step forward and had kissed her. It was soft and loving, he tried to push the passion and care he felt for her in the kiss. She was surprised at this action, but then melted into his touch. Pietro's arm wrapped around her waist but his fingers stroked her hair and her arms around his neck and fingers went into his ridiculously soft hair. He didn't push any farther, not wanting to over step more.

After a moment they separated, not completely, Pietro still hugged her. Both were adorning silly grins and as Chloe went to open her mouth they heard Bruce calling for her. She pulled away and said, "we'll talk later." Before Pietro could agree or protest she walked toward her uncle's direction.

Pietro ran a hand through his hair, this was not how he thought kissing her would turn out. He thought he thought it would be after he had confessed to her and after they would have time to discuss what they would do. He never planned on kissing her and then being forced on a mission for many days while she went to Clint's house in the mean time since she was not to be alone.

Pietro didn't even get to say goodbye to her, Bruce did. He hugged her and said, " _Chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire_ ," and kissed her hair.

"But wherever you are, is my home," she whispered. Chloe hated emotions, Pietro hated fate, but they didn't hate each other.

* * *

Victoria Schuyler was 10,000% done with her existence, she couldn't name a non-existent life. Literally her day consisted of playing D&D with Julia, her twin cousins Jack and Zack, with their Dungeon Master/cousin Ken until Julia made some horror movie reference and she was forced to watch it. Tori, as she was called, did not like _The Ring_ movie one bit. Even though she did not believe things that didn't seem logical, she did get scared and she looked like the creepy girl in it. Like her sister she jumped very easily.

So here she was in her summer vacation room in New Jersey, a thin sheet which was clinging to her sweat soaked skin, she was shivering, and breathing heavy. She often had nightmares, but could never remember them and was glad for it. But she always had her brother and sister to wake her and to calm her. Now she had nobody.

Lord knows where her parents were, she had tried her grandmother's room but she had kicked her out (to be fair she couldn't hear her screaming since she was deaf). So here she stood on the patio of her grandmother's house, trying to decide what to do. Going into her bed was not an option, she needed comfort. No way was she going to the other Banner residence, the identical girl twins were to mean and crabby and she wasn't allowed to have sleepovers with the identical boy twins anymore. She couldn't go to Julia's because she was at her friend's birthday sleepover, and she would not go near Ben although Ken was okay, but those twins shared a room. So that left Lia and Gia.

Tori walked to the Duffy house, still wrapped in her sweat covered blanket. Her feet were bare because what kind of sociopath wears socks to bed? She knew that walk like the back of her hand though she had never lived in New Jersey, only visited. Tori knew walking alone at night was dangerous, but if someone took her she could probably find an escape or they would get tired of her (at least she thought). As Tori walked she recited the Periodic Table in her head, though she did not get far before she had arrived.

Tori tried the front door, but it was locked. _At least someone in this family knows how to properly use a door,_ she thought. She she jumped into the garden and opened then crawled through the window. Gia never locked the front window in case she forgot her key or her sister locked her out again. Tori expertly go in to the makeshift bedroom, it was actually an office, but Lia use the bed on the pull out couch because she refused to share a room with her sister.

Tori walked over to wear Lia slept and carefully shook her awake. "Lia," she whispered in her child-like voice, "Jules made me watch a freaky ass movie and I'm scared. Can I lay with you?"

Lia looked up at her youngest cousin. She stood up and the led the girl out of her room. Tori though maybe she was going to make her some decaf tea like Chloe did, but she simply said, "fuck off," and slammed the door in her face.

Tori then walked to Gia's room, she honestly should have just started with the nicer twin. She opened the door, cringing at the squeak and creak it made, honestly could she not oil it or get new hinges? She could fix it herself, just give her some tools and chocolate as payment and she'd be good. The noisy door made the dogs look up in alert which alerted Gia. Once she learned what had happened Gia scooted over and said, "get in."

Tori laid down, frowning at how this wasn't like Chloe. Her body was to skinny and her chest wasn't as squishy as her sister's. But this wasn't her sister, this was her cousin. "Do you miss J?" Tori called her brother 'J' and her sister 'C' because she was to lazy to say their full names. "I miss J. He gave me piggy back rides and he took me to da park because C gets sunburn to easy. I miss C too, she's my best friend. Mom should'ta sent her away, she didn't wantta have J killed. She's real sorry ya know, my mother won't believe me. Do ya think she's sorry?" Tori waited a moment before she turned to see Gia had fallen asleep.

Tori felt tears coming to her eyes, she didn't cry with other people around. She barely cried around her siblings. Nobody had listened to her, they asked if she was okay but her verbal response was 'yes', but her demeanor screamed 'fuck no'. Tori understood what Chloe had meant when she said, "I can't say no, but I'll show you no", but nobody understood.

Tori then tried to stroke Gia's hair, something she did to her sister when she couldn't sleep, but it was put up. That was when the tears began to flow because she was never going to love or understand somebody as much as her older siblings.

* * *

 ** _Translations:_**

 ** _Chiarire- Explain (Italian, I used this version of the word because it would be used in this context)_**

 ** _Braccia rubate all'agricoltura- Arms stolen from agricultural work (Italian, a term used to describe someone who is studying but should be a farm worker because they are too stupid to do anything else)_**

 _ **Non avere peli sulla lingua- Without hair on his tongue (Italian, slang meaning blunt or brutally honest)**_

 _ **Una sorella è un dono per il cuore, un amico per lo spirito, un filo d'oro al significato della vita.-**_ ** _A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life (Italian)_**

 ** _Chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire.- Italian saying._** ** _Translation: No matter where you go or turn, you will always end up at home._**


	13. Chapter 13

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, self-destructive thoughts, self-hate, rape, verbal abuse, phyical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I did not like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale. I saw Infinity Wars and I will tell you NOTHING. Though I will say I am very shookth because {insert spoilers here}. So let's be like Doctor Strange who saw over fourteen million endings and didn't spoil it for us. If you want to talk/rant about it PM me I will listen and respond.**_

 _ **Warning: GRAPHIC** **DESCRIPTIONS** **OF GANG RAPE (I will put a * at the beginning and end in case you want to skip it I will sum it up after), mentions of abuse, drug use, drugging, mentions of nightmares/terrors, PTSD, Wanda feeling bad, bad self-image, body hate, restricting food intake, Chloe and Pietro fluffiness, Chloe being sick, Halloween happens in this chapter because this chapter takes place over almost two months, Thor not understanding boundaries, Barton's spawn,**_

 _ **Thank you**_ ** _abstract0118,_** ** _chimpnsocks,_** ** _FairyMaster23,_** _ **for reviewing.**_

 _ **I have been crazy busy. I low key quit my summer camp, I think I** **partially** **grew out of it and they way they treated me. I may have spent over half my summers there but they didn't give me a chance. I also stopped to take more time for therapy, I realized that I am falling back into really bad habits. I know that writing some scenes may be hard so my updates might slow down or speed up. I don't know how my brain works yet. And on top of all of that BOTH of my grandmothers are staying with me. One is just visiting for a month or so, but the other is living with us indefinitely (and she's the mean one!). Pray for me. Now I'm on vacay and don't have my computer and it died anyway so slower updates.**_

 ** _I don't own Marvel unfortunately,or Bomboloni (it's a real desert), Once Upon A December from Anastasia, You Are My Sunshine, Disney's Hercules, Stranger Things, Netflix, Friends, Grease, Indiana Jones, Prince, The Breaskfast Club,_ _;only my OCs_**

* * *

After a long hard mission, everyone wanted to collapse. It had been tough on everyone, some were more hurt than others, the twins were hurting the worst. It was more mental damage than anything. This base had been using humans as experiments, not for powers, they could have fought back with powers. No this was to see how much the human body could endure. Some were starved, some beaten, some were withheld water or sunlight. Even if they had survived to that point, the scientist had killed every single one. They were able to get a few of the scientist in, but most were gone or killed.

Wanda and Pietro could not help but think that in some twisted way, they were lucky. That they had survived hell, but they got to live. They got powers that could help people, they saw that they were wrong. They got to understand what they had done. They got a chance to redeem themselves. Lucky, them lucky? That was just a punch to the gut. Sure they got to live, but it was not a price they could easily mange.

Everyone's thoughts were spiraling downward, all they wanted was sleep, but sleep meant nightmares. As the team wallowed in self pity the door to Clint's house was opened. The house itself was homey enough but the smell of something sweet, doughnuts maybe? And the sound of soft singing made them sigh in content. Walking to the source of the smell and subsequently the food they found Chloe rocking the youngest Barton while singing.

 _"Dancing bears, painted wings, Things I almost remember, And a song someone sings: Once upon a December. Someone holds me safe and warm, Horses prance through a silver storm, Figures dancing gracefully, Across my memory. Far away, long ago, Glowing dim as an ember, Things my heart used to know, Things it yearns to remember, And a song someone sings: Once upon a December"_

Everyone clapped for the blonde who promptly blushed. She had heard the team walk in, but had heard Clint talking, and she assumed it was to them. She carefully placed the young child in his carrier, "I made you guys something." She wiped her forehead adding flour to her face.

" _Bomboloni_ ," Bruce could tell by the smell. It brought back memories of his oldest sister making these for the family on weekends sometimes.

He remembered waking up and smelling the cinnamon and somehow the flakiness of the treat and rushing to get some. Any other time nobody was allowed to wear their pajamas to the table, but when Kelsey made this breakfast, that rule was forgotten. Everybody rushed to get some before his brother ate them all. Most kids in his school would ask for cake or fast food for their breakfasts, but Bruce would beg his older sister to make these. They were not made often, the prep time was four hours.

When he introduced Jamie to his older sister he added that he had never had _real_ Italian food and his sister made them the sweet. Somehow she knew he needed a taste of home. "I figured you would want something along these lines," Chloe handed him the doughnut.

"I love you," Bruce said in a sing-songy voice and Chloe just nodded in play apprehension.

He took a bite and suddenly he was eight years old again, sitting at the kitchen table in his pajamas without his glasses and his feet are bare. He had a cup of black decaf coffee in one of those green and cream coffee mugs that matched some set in front of him. His dad was across from him reading the Sunday paper before the herd of people came in and it was time for church. Bruce would smirk as he poked the paper and his dad would grin at him and say, " _Sono ossessionato da un piccolo fantasma_!"

"But Papa, I'm notta ghost, Imma Bruce." Bruce would argue back. "Ghosts aren't real." He was logical, ghost weren't logical. There was no concrete proof that said ghosts are real.

"Just because it hasn't been proven doesn't mean it isn't real," his father would retort and open the paper back up. Bruce would just make a face and go back to his breakfast. Sometimes he would beg his father to let him stay back from church but his father usually made him go. Bruce would argue that since his father didn't have to go he shouldn't, but the older man would say, "Bruce, I can't hear the priest, and I can't see what his lips say. I'm not Catholic anyway, I don't have to go. I only have to do two things in this life: pay taxes and die." And that would be the end of that argument.

Bruce walked over to where Clint sat, "so, like, if I pay you can I keep the babysitter- I mean Chloe." He looked over at the children, they were calm and collected. The last time Bruce was here the two fought over things constantly: the remote, Auntie Nat, chairs, toys, their fathers attention, you name it.

That kind of made Bruce apprehensive, it was a lot like his childhood only on a smaller scale and completely in English. The sounds of feet running around, the scent of wood cut, the sounds of some machine being tinkered with, the smell of some sort of meal on the way. After the terrors Wanda had showed him he had to many flashbacks to his childhood.

Just then Chloe walked in with some _Bomboloni_ on a plate for Clint and his two oldest children. She handed them the plates and Clint said, "this took forever it better be good." All at the same time the three took a bite and their eyes widened, "I'm sorry I ever doubted you." She smiled at his comment.

After Bucky had cleaned the dishes, he wanted to help but knew next to nothing about cooking, and everyone had relaxed a bit the group left for the base. Bruce realized his thoughts had been downward spiraling, but then he and Chloe got into a conversation over things that had changed since he went to college.

Bruce felt bad about not going back, and he wanted to, oh he did, but he would think 'would dad be proud'. His entire goal in life was to make his father proud, to go farther then anyone else and not because he wanted to be better than them, but because he could. Just the thought of his father disappointed in him made him angry. Time and time again his parents said that his siblings were the problem children that Bruce was the good one, he wanted to keep it that away. Bruce didn't want to be remembered as the kid with the defiant older siblings, he wanted to be Bruce. He wanted to prove he was more than the 'Little Banner'.

"Question," Chloe started, "how did you become The Other Guy?" She knew it couldn't be genetic or one or/more of her family would have shown some sign. But Uncle B was smart so it could not have been his fault.

Everyone in earshot looked at Chloe in confusion; how did she not know what had happened to her uncle? Did he purposely not tell her or did he assume she already knew? Did he not want her to know because he was ashamed? He rarely talked about what happened but he must have told his niece?

Bruce scratched the back of his head, a telltale sign he was uncomfortable. "Well, ya see, I was working on a recreation of The Super Soldier Serum and decided that Gamma radiation was a good idea."

Chloe cut him off, "Let me guess, you wouldn't experiment on others so you used yourself because you were so sure it would work. It blew up in your face and now you have serious anger problems." Bruce did not respond and Chloe sighed heavily in response. "Dumb _dego_." That mumble caused the two to quietly bicker in Italian until they had arrived at the base.

The team had to go debrief, but since Chloe hadn't slept well she decided to go lay down. She had told Pietro that they would talk in the morning because they both were tired. If she had noticed his almost longing stares at her she would have talked to him sooner. Maybe what happened that night wouldn't have happened. Maybe she wouldn't have had so much to say to him.

* * *

Wanda never meant for it to happen, she really truly did not. If she could change what had happened that fateful night, she would in less than a heartbeat. Everyone told her it was an accident and it was not her fault, but Wanda blamed nothing but herself. She never meant to hurt her already hurting friend, she was scared and acted without the slightest thought. Some called it "fight or flight instincts", and Wanda chose to fight. She wished she never did, she wished she ran away. But Wanda did not know how to run away in this case, she only knew how to fight back. Her entire life was fighting for what she believed in, but this time she did believe in what she fought. She did not know what she was fighting and she oh so desperately wished she did.

Wanda had a nightmare, it was that plain and simple. It was something she could not control, she never could. The last mission was exhausting and she had not been sleeping well as of late. The sights she had seen on the last mission had bothered her too much. She could not help but think 'what if that was me or Pietro'? Thinking that made her sick to her stomach, her and her twin could be one of those people with infected cuts or starved to death. She could be dead, or worse her _Pietro_ could be dead. She could be the reason her darling brother could be dead because of abuse, no torture. They made have both made the decision, but Wanda never thought about not going to Strucker. She never thought about the consequences the experiments could possibly have on either sibling. She knew they would be extremely painful, worse than child birth though she had never done such a thing, but if that meant revenge she did not care. How could she when some justice had been brought to her parents?

Wanda was dreaming, or whatever the word was for having a nightmare in that moment, when it happened. She had been making noises in her sleep, they were louder than groans, but weren't quite yells. Normally in this case Pietro would come into calm her, but he was having a nightmare himself. But Wanda's pain caught the attention of Chloe who happened to pass by. She had gone to the lab where her uncle had kept her medication (a safety precaution) and was on her way back when she heard Wanda. Chloe did not think, she walked in to help Wanda. Wanda had done so much for Chloe that she would do anything to help her. She had gone through so much but still checked up on Chloe.

Chloe tried to coax Wanda awake, but it wasn't working. She was still whimpering and slightly thrashing. "Wanda, _Sono qui,_ please wake up." Her voice was soft and loving, welcoming even. She was trying not to frighten her friend, but it did not matter.

Wanda's eyes snapped open along with her powers. In her mind the torturer in her dream was looming over her and she needed to attack. Long red coils lit up the darkened room and surrounded Chloe. She did not look scared as they entered her mind and took control. Wanda had seen people try to run from this _thing_ inside her, almost everyone she had done this to ran if they saw her. But not Chloe, she did not fight, it was like she almost expected it, wanted even.

Wanda saw Chloe cradling her brother, her dead brother in her arms, singing that song soberly. "You Are My Sunshine" was not as happy as Chloe said it was as she sang.

 _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,_ _You make me happy when skies are gray, You'll never know dear, how much I love you,_ _Please don't take my sunshine away_

Nothing mattered more to Chloe than seeing her brother hurt, and seeing him crying hurt worse than any wound she could ever have. She did not feel the binds cutting her skin, she did not feel the tears streaming don her face, she did not feel the hot breath on her neck as the man laughed at them, she did not feel anything besides heart break as she saw her brother crying. He was screaming, threatening to hurt the man behind her, then he switched to begging to let her go. He would do anything for this monster to let his little sister go. He could not break his restraints, he was strong but the metal chains were stronger. He would most likely break his wrists before the metal. That was something Joey would have done, sacrifice himself for her.

Chloe never understood, she never grasped the idea. She never comprehended all the times it was explained to her. She never quite understood how people could actually like her. She wasn't as charming as her brother, or silly as her sister, or as social as Gia. She was not one of those girls who did stupid things to get attention or Instagram likes. Chloe was quiet as a mouse, she learned to not make noise. No sudden movements and nobody would notice. But silence could be so fucking loud because it reminded her how alone she was. Silence was something Chloe was used to making and not having.

Chloe was used to being out of the spotlight so to speak, yes she loved to preform, but she did not have to be her in those performances. In life, she was tree number three, while everyone else fought for the spotlight. Joey was the golden boy, everybody loved him. They paid more attention to him which was fine for her, she did not want it. Chloe never felt malice toward her brother, why would she be mad at him for being himself? She never wanted to be the center of attention, she never was.

But then Brad had walked in and swooped her off her feet. His charm made it okay to be in the spotlight so long as she earned it. Chloe had fallen for every smile and every compliment he gave her. She enjoyed driving around with him, she was hesitant on being the passenger in a car since her accident, but he made it worthwhile. She thought his check-in texts were adorable because he just wanted to make sure she was okay. Every kiss was sealed with a lie on lie. It had meant nothing to him. She had loved him and that was what scared her. Chloe was never supposed to fall for him, it was supposed to be her and her siblings because they never knew romantic love.

 _You told me once, dear, you really loved me,_ _And no one else could come between,_ _But now you've left me and love another,_ _You have shattered all of my dreams_

Chloe's voice was replaced with Joey's deeper but equally as monotone voice. He almost sounded sad as he sang. The look of pure agony as he listened to his once _friend_ go on about what he had done to his sister was heartbreaking. He could not take it; he could not believe he let someone he was friends with touch his sister like that.

Wanda then saw something she desperately wished she could unsee. She more so wished it had never happened to anyone in the first place. After the horrific scene Tori stood before Chloe. Her hair was down and she wore baby blue nightgown and held a teddy bear at her side. "Why did you kill J?" Her voice was that of a child but she kept repeating the question in other's voices.

Wanda jumped up and began to shake Chloe, begging her friend to wake. Her powers sent people into a dream like state and she wanted Chloe to wake up. She had just made her friend witness her brother's murder, a brutal scene, and her sister accusing her.

Bruce was quickly alerted and rushed to his niece. "I did not mean too, it was an accident I swear!" She cried hugging her friend. She kept apologizing for her actions but Bruce did not know what to do. He knew what it was like to be under Wanda's spell and he could not believe his niece had to go through it, but Wanda was so upset she was crying.

Pietro had come because of the noise and was just as confused as Bruce at first. It hurt to his sister crying, begging for her powers to reverse themselves but it also hurt to see Chloe almost completely frozen, only a few tears escaping. He took a step closer along with Bruce. Wanda rushed into her brother's arms while Bruce began softly talking to his niece. " _Talk to her,"_ she said in their native tongue, " _she's scared, but doesn't know how to tell Bruce."_ Pietro looked at his sister and wondered what she had to tell her uncle.

Wanda went into the hall a few moments later motioning for Bruce to follow. She did have some questions for him and wanted to apologize to him. Pietro looked at Chloe who had stopped crying. "I have to tell you or you will not understand," she sat down on the bed and motioned for him to sit. And she began to relive that horrific event.

* * *

 _Chloe never liked parties, even as a little kid she despised them. But since Brad wanted her to meet some of his friends from out of town, she went. Besides she knew better then to fight with him, so she dressed nicely and went out. He took her upstairs, she knew what would happen or so she thought._

 _Parties with high school kids and/or college kids meant beer, drugs, and sex. Chloe could not handle two of those things. The only things she could remotely drink were certain flavors of wine coolers and a glass of whatever the wine was her grandmother bought at the sketchy store she always shopped at. Any other type of liquor and she was done; she was told to drink more and build a tolerance, but she hated the way she felt afterward. And she did not like smoking period, plus it was hard to hide the scent when it got into your clothes._

 _(Her brother was the same way, he could not handle the third of beer he once had at a family party. He was told to stop being a_ una guastafesta _and have a beer. He drank some, he did not like the taste, he then actively joined Macy's gossip about boys then went into Chloe's room when they stayed at their grandmother's and fell asleep in the closet. She had to coax him out the next morning, he was beyond embarrassed, he kept saying 'go away, I live here now'.)_

 _*Sex was something Chloe was not comfortable with in the slightest. She never wanted to have sex outside of marriage, her parents forbade her and her siblings from doing so. She hated talking about sex in general but having to do the act was far worse. Her family never talked sex or puberty, the only time sex was brought up was when her two uncles would brag about their sex lives. Other than that nothing of the sort was brought up. Every girl's first time hurt, everyone said that, some people had said sex was not supposed to hurt but that was just preposterous. Considering Chloe's first time was while she was being held down in the bed of a pick-up truck, she never enjoyed sex._

 _At first she fought like hell, she had little upper body strength and only one of her legs was strong because the other was healing, so she could not get away. Then she had learned not to fight, she just froze and did nothing. Now she kissed back and did what he said, but she never felt anything. She never felt blinding arousal like Macy said she felt, she just felt hollow. The only time she ever felt anything was when whatever poison Brad had picked was coursing through her veins._

 _But when the door opened she knew that this would be worse then any other time she had sex because there was two guys standing there while they looked at her like a piece of meat. Brad reminded them of the 'rules' they could do whatever they wanted except vaginal sex because if she was going to get pregnant it was going to be_ his _baby. She felt like a child's doll because they pretty much ripped her clothes off like a young child would._

 _Chloe wanted to go numb like she had before but she could not. Not as one kissed her neck and left marks while the other squeezed her breasts so hard she yelped. The shorter one, who was kissing her neck, sat on the bed and the other one forced her onto her hands and knees. Since her accident Chloe could not kneel for much longer than thirty seconds and since she was being forced her legs were shaking. The only things holding her up was her hands and then the shorter male who was holding her head so she could put her mouth on his member._

 _Chloe had unfortunately been forced to do what she was doing before, so she knew how to make it end quicker. But something surprised her, the male behind her then harshly smacked her rear. When she normally did get hit she knew it was coming so she tried not to react, it only showed weakness. But this was unexpected, she tried to yelp._

 _The male in front of her spoke after a moan, "yo, dude, do that again, when she tries to scream it fucking vibrates." So repeated the action multiple times until the other male released in her mouth. Chloe knew what she had to do so she quickly swallowed. "Gross, she actually swallowed."_

 _The other male quickly rammed into her making Chloe yelp once again, the shorter male was growing hard again and the grip on her face would not let her move away. She really felt a child's toy because she was being pushed back and forth as if they were fighting over her. She could feel blood dripping down her legs, she had been taken from behind with no form of lubricant to ease the pain. But now, her blood was lubricant making the pain slightly more bearable._

 _Once both had finished Brad had decided to show them how he took her. Chloe was able to go numb, not feeling anything as he did his work. She was used to him doing this, she knew what to expect. After he finished he yelled at her to get dressed. With tears running down her face she did, she could hear them talking about her._

 _Once Chloe had changed he poured some form of drink on her to mask the smell of sex. The story this time was she fell on her butt and as she went down someone's drink spilled on her. The sad thing was almost everyone believed it, except two people, her brother and a teacher she was very close with._

 _And people wondered why Chloe hated sex.*_

* * *

Pietro looked at Chloe in shock at her confession; this beautiful and innocent girl had been gang raped? It was bad enough one person had violated her, but that twisted person let two others do so? That was just fucking cruel. Chloe did not deserve that, she deserved to be loved and cherished. She deserved to be pampered because she was that fucking special.

Chloe was one of kindest people he had ever met in his life. She always cared about others before herself. When she cooked for the team she always made sure everyone had enough to eat before she did. She always made sure that others had their drinks filled as well. She would make their plates for them, already knowing what they did and did not like. And while they ate she asked if anyone needed anything. If someone on the team looked remotely upset Chloe would sit with them, sometimes talking and sometimes not.

Just the thought of some guy laying a hand on her was enough to make his blood boil. He wondered if her brother knew what had happened, but she had said he had suspicions. Pietro could not imagine how that had effected her, Chloe was a very sensitive person. He was not saying it was a bad thing, he was saying that being emotional did not help with the situation.

Pietro pulled her into a hug to comfort her. Tears fell down her makeup-less face and she softly cried into his chest. It felt nice to be held and she wanted to make it last. In her mind there was no way in hell Pietro would want her once he found out how she had been assaulted. He would not want her in the first place, she was not the girl most guys went for. Hell, she was not one of the girls he had flirted with at parties. But she did not know they were flirting with him and he was being polite and thought maybe she would get jealous (Not a smart move on his part). "I understand you don't want me anymore."

Pietro pulled Chloe at arms length, "Oh _miláčik_ , it is not your fault. How could I hate you for something you were forced to do?" He wiped her tears with his thumb, "I could never hate you. If anything I thought you would not want me." Her eyebrows were knitted in confusion. "I am a _netvor_ , I am a lab experiment who was a villain, How could you want me? I could hurt you." He admitted looking down almost in defeat.

Chloe tried to meet his gaze, "when my uncle gets angry he turns into The Hulk, my dad and grandfather were Navy SEALS, my brother could bench press almost three times his weight, my baby sister hacks the government for fun, and I was raised by my mom and grandmother, I think I'll be fine." Pietro laughed at her confession though she kept a straight face. "Can we just go slow, I know it's not your thing, but I'm really nervous and-"

"For you," Pietro pulled her hair behind her ear, "I will go slow."

The two decided to go out the next night, but first Chloe wanted to make sure Wanda was okay with them dating. Pietro said it she was trying to get them to, but she needed to hear it from her. She would be dating her best friend's brother and if Wanda was not okay with it she would back off. Chloe did not want Wanda to push away from the only family she had left over them dating.

Chloe went to sleep after that, she was not feeling well, her head was pounding and her throat ached. She had thought it had been from the crying, she never considered she could be sick again. She did not wake up for her alarm and when Bruce went to wake her up for her doctor's appointment. Her first response was ' _Vai a quel paese' a_ nd when Bruce reminded her of her appointment she then said ' _Chissenefrega?'_

"Chloe this important, it's your therapist." Bruce's mind was processing what she said. She had told him to go to hell, then asked who the hell cared, and Chloe _never_ swore. He reached into to her little cocoon of blankets to feel her forehead. She only got this irritable when was extremely tired, on her cycle (which he knew she wasn't because she had other symptoms) and when she was sick. Her warm forehead proved that hypothesis. "Just get some sleep, I'll be back later"

So Bruce went down to the medical unit to talk to one of doctors who worked there. He was a doctor but not _that_ kind of doctor. The doctor went to visit her since Bruce knew better than to try to get her to get up. The doctor confirmed she was indeed sick, most likely a virus that was not very contagious. Bruce knew what he had to do, he had taken care of her while she was sick before. Plenty of fluids and lots of rest and take the medicine they prescribed.

Bruce went into the kitchen to grab Chloe a drink when Wanda caught his attention. She was standing there looking at the ground and rubbing her hands. She looked preoccupied but looked up when Bruce walked in. "I wanted to know if I could talk to Chloe, I wanted to apologize for what happened." Wanda had yet to sleep because she was so worried about her friend. She did not know if Bruce would let her because of how protective he was.

"I would wait until she feels better. She's sick right now, and I would not want to wake her again." He answered truthfully. Wanda gave a half smile, happy she could talk to her friend but sad she was sick and had to wait.

"Chloe's sick?" Steve asked as he the other super soldier, Sam, and Pietro walked in. Pietro instantly perked up at her name but then looked sad that she was sick. "Poor kid, can't catch a break."

"Yeah she really feels sick," Bruce said grabbing a glass of water. "I tried to get her up for a doctors appointment and she told me to go to hell and then when I said it was important she asked who the hell cared." Bruce shrugged as he poured water into the glass.

Sam raised an eyebrow, "wait a second, your niece, Chloe, the polite one, swore?" He had barely heard her complain let alone swear. Even if she was telling a story where cursing was involved she bleeped the words out.

"I know it surprised me too." Bruce said, "she doesn't swear. Her hypocritical mother, who swears like a sailor, forbids her from swearing. Seriously, when she was ten she asked what harlot meant, she had read it in a book and didn't know what it meant, and my sister flipped her lid. You know the old thing were they wash the kid's mouth out with soap, well, she was forced to drink half the bottle to 'get it out of her system'." Bruce's knuckles that were around the glass turned white at the memory. She was sick for days after that, she couldn't keep anything down and was violently sick. He wound up telling his father because she needed a doctor and once Chloe was treated he laid his youngest daughter a new one for that.

Before anyone could say anything he left the room before he went on a rant about his irresponsible siblings.

* * *

Pietro had waited until later than night to check on Chloe. He knew she needed rest and wanted Bruce to calm down. He wondered how Bruce would react when he found out they were starting to see each other. He knew it would not go over well. But he was ready for the wrath of Bruce in his mind.

Chloe was awake, in fact she had just woken up. Her hair was thrown back in a messy bun, she wore no make-up, she was balancing her sketch book on her fold leg while the other was up and she leaned her elbow on it. Her finger was slightly in her mouth, meaning she was contemplating. She looked so at peace Pietro did not want to disturb her. It was one of the first times he saw her with no makeup, her face glowed without it. Her skin was as light as the tips of his sliver/white hair.

Chloe happened to look up and saw him. "Oh hey," she closed up her sketchbook. "I'm sorry I can't go out tonight, doctors orders." She looked down sheepishly, embarrassed she had gotten sick again.

Pietro walked up to her bed, "we can stay here, watch a movie, talk whatever." She moved her sketchbook and scooted over so he could sit. "I do not care that you are sick." Chloe blushed once again as he settled next to her.

Pietro hesitated for a slight second then put his arm around her. He knew she often flinched when she was touched, even if she knew she was being touched. And she did but a moment after she relaxed. She apologized again for being sick but Pietro said it wasn't her fault.

The two decided to watch a movie, they decided to watch _Hercules_ since it was one of Chloe's favorites. She loved the music and the characters in the story. She just loved mythology in general.

Chloe explained that it was her brother's nickname in high school. He started off middle school skinny but was still strong, then he started working out and became built by high school. Kids on the team and their rival teams said being hit by him was like being hit by a mountain. She had heard from the students that Joey had the body and face of god (to which she made no comments, like ever). Also his number was 12 like the twelve labors of Hercules.

Chloe had fallen asleep by the end of movie, she had a long day though she slept a lot. Pietro didn't mind, in felt nice. He had an arm wrapped around her, her one arm was around his front, and her legs were across his lap with her laptop on top of them. It felt natural for him to be next to her.

After the movie finished he closed the screen out. She had many Disney movies saved to her laptop, her excuse was 'I have a little sister'.

When he closed that screen Pietro admired her background. It was multiple pictures in a collage but all looked to be taken around the same time. One was of her putting on make up while Gia slept with her head on a vanity. Another was of her and two girls he did not know, one with skin the color of watered down coffee and hair the color of coffee grounds and the other had skin the color of sand but hair as red as the red of a lady bug. They were all eating cake at the same time whilst staring directly into the camera. Another was of Chloe motioning proudly to a slow dancing couple; the girl with coffee ground colored hair and a boy with skin the color of the rocks at the Grand Canyon and similar colored hair to the girl. The final was of Chloe and her sister back to back holding up finger guns. Chloe wore the same light purple dress with no straps and large draped ruffles and her hair in small curls.

Pietro smiled at the thought of her smiling. She must have been at some event, but looked happy making him happy. He closed the laptop and let her sleep.

The next month or so seemed to roll by. Chloe and Pietro were sneaking in dates, if anybody noticed they didn't say anything to her uncle. Chloe was sure her uncle would have said something by now.

Chloe had also spent time with Wanda as well. The second season of _Stranger Things_ had finally been released on Netflix. Wanda had at one point complained she had waited for to long but then Chloe glared at her and said, "sis, you've been waiting for four months, I've been waiting for over a _year."_ Chloe would refer to Wanda and Nat as sis when she exasperated or was trying to explaining something. She used boi for the males, something she had picked up from Gia.

When the girls watched the season, they started at 3 am when it was released and let nobody have the large t.v. They warned the team if it sounded like somebody was being murder, it was most likely the Duffer Brothers ripping their souls out and not to disturb them. In fact Steve heard them freaking out as he readied himself for his morning run and almost came rushing.

A few days after that was Halloween; Chloe had loved Halloween. She was quite good at special effects makeup and could finally use it. Her sister would let her practice on her, but other than that her giant bag of supplies collected dust. Rhoadey said he needed some fake cuts and Chloe got excited. She had no problem doing his makeup, she even had dark fake skin wax deep in her bag. She had laughed at his face when she used the fake blood on him and tasted it (it was edible).

Chloe had no idea what to do for a costume, but Nat said she had her covered. She didn't know whether to be scared or excited because Nat refused to tell her. So on the day of Halloween the girls went to a hair salon.

Chloe badly needed a hair cut, she had not had one in over three years. Her hair was rarely cut even so. All of the girls in their family wore their long except for her aunts who had practically killed their hair with perms. She had a lot of dead ends and just needed to cut it. Her hair was extremely thick; she snapped hair ties so much that she tied them together to make larger ones.

Nat said if she could come up with a valid argument then she wouldn't have to cut her hair. So Chloe cut her hair to her waist, donating the cut hair. She often complained about her hair being long and thick, but when someone said to cut she said 'no'.

Her hair was thrown into large curls for her costume but it gave her no clue as to who she would be portraying. When they got back to the tower (Tony was throwing a Halloween party at the tower) she did special effects Rhoadeys makeup. Then she was whisked to the temporary room the girls were using to ready in. Nat was going as Monica from _Friends_ while her uncle was going as Chandler. Wanda was going as Eleven (vamped up in season 2) while Vision was going as Mike.

When Chloe saw her costume she gasped. "I can't wear this in public!" Was it a little slutty? Yes. Could she pull it off? Also yes. It was Sandy from _Grease_ but at the end where she wears that tight black leather outfit except Chloes covered her cuts on her arms. But she put it on anyway and looked at herself in the mirror. Chloe had to admit it was a nice costume. It fit just right; it held in her stomach, made her breasts look good, and her legs look good. (She had dancers legs making wearing tight pants hard, plus the seem was not over her scar, so it wouldn't irritate it) The biggest problem were the heels, she used to wear heels a lot but since the crash her leg hurt to much. But Nat had gotten the shoes made with cushions and would make sure she sat.

Once they were all ready Chloe gave herself a moment to prepare herself. Nat warned her if she wasn't out there in five minutes she would be drug out. So she called Geoff who could give confidence to a plant if he wanted to.

While Chloe got her pep talk Bruce, Pietro, Sam, and Thor were having a conversation about her. More like Thor was asking questions. "Is Chloe full grown? She is very tiny though she is very gifted in feminine curves aspect." Sam and Pietro both almost choked on their food and drink respectively. Clearly not expecting the question and followed statement.

Bruce looked up at Thor, "yes she is, and do _not_ look at her in that way ever again thank you." He hated it when people looked at girls like that general but it was another thing when it was his family. Thor began to apologize saying he was not _looking_ per say but he had _noticed._

Just then Sam happened to look up and saw the girl they were speaking about. He smacked Thor's arm and the god followed his line of sight and stopped mid sentence. "How can one not notice when she's dressed like _that?!_ " He mumbled as Bruce and Pietro turned around.

There was Chloe dressed in a very tight outfit and her makeup done perfectly. Though she looked more toward the ground and had a hand around her elbow sheepishly. She walked up to Bruce and her light blush turned redder. "Nat made me."

Then Chloe began to talk to members of the team, who complemented her costume. Thor was _Indiana Jones,_ Sam was _Prince,_ Pietro was the criminal from _The Brekfast Club._

Chloe had a fun time. Every so often some guy would start talking to her and various members of the team would swoop in and save her. It was mostly Pietro who did but it made her smile. She loved talking to him, he always made her smile. He truly cared for her.

After a few hours of socializing Pietro could tell his girlfriend was worn out. God, he loved calling her his girlfriend. That meant they cared for each other. That he was the one she kissed goodnight, that she thought about. That Pietro was the one who made her grin and giggle. He was one Chloe went to when she was upset and crying. When her nightmares haunted her and her depression was drowning her, she went to Pietro for help.

Pietro escorted her to the elavator and to her room. Chloe had taken off her heels but was still in pain. Pietro had learned long ago that Chloe masked her pain. He knew that when she pressed her lips together or put all of her weight on her right foot and put the tip of her left foot on the ground she was in pain.

While in the elevator Pietro brought Chloe close and lifted her up. Her legs went around his waist and her arms around his neck while she held her shoes. Pietro held her by the middle of her thighs not wanting to make her anymore uncomfortable. He smiled and Chloe kissed his cheek. She pulled away and looked into his eyes. Pietro's eyes held so much curiosity and happiness she kissed him again but on the lips.

Just then the doors opened to show Bruce his niece kissing his teammate. He stood there for a second just gaping at the two. That was his niece _letting_ another man kiss her. He needed to make sure she had not lost her mind.

Bruce cleared his throat and the two broke apart blushing. "Uncle B, don't be mad." She whispered on the verge of tears. Chloe did not want to upset her uncle, but she really cared for Pietro. He set her down carefully but she still winced.

Chloe walked towards her uncle with tears in her eyes. _"Sei sicurio di lui?"_ Bruce asked her. He knew that it was time for Chloe to make her decisions, but why Pietro? But then Bruce saw how Pietro rubbed her shoulder, comforting her. His eyes said he cared. And she had so easily accepted Nat as his romantic interest why couldn't he? Though it was Pietro.

Chloe looked up into his eyes and nodded, too afraid to speak. She had always been afraid of asking for things. He made her happy that was all that mattered. "I'm not thrilled but if he makes you happy, _per favore vai piano."_ Bruce then explained to Pietro that he would kill him if he even thought of hurting his niece, or at least he assumed that was the threat because he spoke in Italian.

Bruce kissed her head and told her to get some sleep. Pietro followed her mouthing a thank you to Bruce.

Chloe went into her room and told Pietro he could spend the night. He assured nothing would happen making her blush and smile at the same time. She went into the bathroom to change and take off her makeup. When she came back she climbed into bed next him.

Chloe laid her head on his chest for a moment and then kissed him. The kissed for a moment before Pietro nipped her bottom lip. In their month and a half of dating they had yet to French kiss. Pietro did not want to force her into rough waters to soon. But he felt like now was a good chance to try.

Chloe barely hesitated, knowing Pietro would stop if she too uncomfortable. Slowly he explored her mouth. She tasted like her tooth paste and sugary like the candy corn she had eaten earlier. He stopped to breath but continued when she shyly smiled. As he explored his fingers went into her hair. It was somehow soft but stiff from the hairspray at the same time.

Pietro moved his head to gain better access to her but when that wasn't enough he carefully turned her over so he was on top. She tasted so sweet he thought he might pass out. Her kisses were soft but still held so much raw emotion it sent him reeling every damn time. He still ran the tips of his fingers threw her hair as one hand laid on her waist.

Pietro left her lips and lightly kissed her jaw. Chloe brought a hand up to move his hair away so she could see him better. He saw her scars, none had been added since she scratched herself in her sleep but it still sent a pang to his heart. A sweet innocent girl, his girlfriend Chloe was so upset, so disgusted by herself she hurt herself. She did not see the beauty he saw.

"You're so perfect," he mummered, taking her wrist and kissing it. Her already red face turned redder and she sped up her breathing. "I wish you could see _milacik._ If only." Pietro laid next to her and Chloe snuggled into his chest. His whispered sweet compliments in her ear even after she fell asleep. Either way she still had a smile.

* * *

 _ **Translations:**_

 _ **Sono ossessionato da un piccolo fantasma- (Italian) I am being haunted by a tiny ghost**_

 _ **Dego- A slang term used to describe** **stereotypical**_ _ **Italians (not usually friendly, a "dig" if you will)**_

 _ **Sono qui- (Italian) I am here**_

 _ **Una guastafesta- (Italian) to spoil the party (a party pooper)**_

 ** _miláčik- Sweetheart (Slovak)_**

 _ **netvor- Freak, monster (Slovak)**_

 _ **Vai a quel paese- Go to hell (Italian)**_

 _ **Chissenefrega?- Who the hell cares (Italian)**_

 _ **Sei sicurio di lui?- Are you sure about him? (Italian)**_

 _ **Per favore via piano- please go slow**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, self-destructive thoughts, self-hate, rape, verbal abuse, phyical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, and survivor's guilt. I will put warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I did not like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale. I saw Infinity Wars and I will tell you NOTHING. Though I will say I am very shookth because {insert spoilers here}. So let's be like Doctor Strange who saw over fourteen million endings and didn't spoil it for us. If you want to talk/rant about it PM me I will listen and respond.**_

 _ **Warning:** **mentions of child abuse/** **negligenc** **e** **, mentions of nightmares/terrors, PTSD, bad self-image, body hate, restricting food intake, Chloe and Pietro fluffiness, Chloe and Bruce's family being mean, they are almost all assholes, Italian- a lot of Italian-, miscarriage, guilt,**_

 _ **Thank you**_ ** _abstract0118,_** ** _chimpnsocks,_** ** _FairyMaster23,_** _ **for reviewing.**_

 _ **I have been crazy busy.** **I also stopped to take more time for therapy, I realized that I am falling back into really bad habits. I don't know how my brain works yet. And on top of all of that My grandmother is living with us indefinitely (and she's the mean one!). Pray for me. I just got back from vacation and school is starting soon. and don't have my computer and it died anyway so slower updates.**_

 _ **I want to explain that some of the stories that have been brought up or will be brought up were based on things I have seen in my family. Some stories are my mother's because her brother's were brutal and some are stories I have heard from other people. Some have in fact happened some I have just changed aspects to. I try to make Chloe's reactions as authentic as possible for someone like her. I did not want her to act tough or blow it off, I wanted to show how someone as sensitive as her would react.**_

 ** _I don't own Marvel unfortunately,or Terminator, Chick-Fil-A, Poltergeist, Godspell, Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace (based off of Prayer St. Francis)_ _;only my OCs_**

* * *

Missions always left the team exhausted but everyone could tell something was amiss. Bucky greeted them and not Chloe. Even if she was asleep she would drag herself out to make sure everything was okay. But today only Bucky was there and he looked worried, well more so than usual.

Tony was the one to address the elephant in the room. "Hey, Terminator where's Shorty?" Rhoadey had elbowed him for that. For calling Bucky by a nickname he did not understand (which made him mad) and for pointing out Chloe's height again.

"Uh," Bucky rubbed the back of his neck, "she's in the kitchen. Something happened, I don't know what. Every time I try to talk to her she throws something at me and bursts into tears. And when she does talk it's an extremely fast mixture of Italian and English that I can barely understand. She's been baking for the past six hours." Bucky looked down and sorry as well. He had no idea what to do, Chloe had helped with so much and now when she needed help he could not help her. He could hear her trying, but failing, to cry softly as she baked with his advanced hearing from his version of the super soldier serum.

Bruce went to go find her, hopefully he did not have to talk her off the ledge. Wanda and Pietro decided to go with him for moral support. The team scattered but was close in case they were needed to help calm her.

Bruce went near the kitchen softly calling Chloe's name. "Chlo' I'm coming in." He said and slowly entered the kitchen. Bruce knew she was having a panic attack but not the source. He knew it was bad because of the amount she had baked. "What happened?"

"My mother called," she said through a sob. She continued to mix whatever she had in the bowl in front of her. Wanda hugged her and apologized though she had nothing to apologize for. At this point Nat walked in, it was like she she knew he was about to hulk from the news. "She called to say that we were 'unfortunately' invited to Thanksgiving dinner next week. Of course there are conditions, but apparently Gram wants to see you." Chloe did not mean to have it come out as rude as it did, but the sentence did.

Chloe had finally accepted her mother did not want her. She had been told countless times that her mother did not want her. Her mother wanted sons who would 'go farther than any female could'. When everything happened with her brother her mom wanted to kick her out right then and there but her father got a check from the military for the twins as long as the went to their private school. The military recruited there and if more military families went there, they thought recruitment would be higher. So when realized she would be losing not one but two checks full of money to spend, Chloe was allowed to stay until she graduated but not long after.

But her mom had sweeted the pot; her sister would be there. Chloe was used to Tori because she was practically glued to her. Tori helped make her happy in ways that she would never understand. They were extremely close for sisters who were eleven years apart (probably due to Tori being extremely intelligent and mature for seven), Tori often called her sister mom. She had originally thought Chloe and Joey were her parents somehow, but it took years to pull that theory out of her particularly thick skull. There was no way they could be her parents, both looking like either of their parents. Tori looked like a slight mixture of the two. She had the coloring of her mother and her body type too, but her facial structure was that of Chloe's and she made more faces and gestures like her sister.

Chloe continued to explain what her mother had told her over the phone. "She said we cannot cause any problems, we cannot bring food in case we try to poison them or something, and if we do go we must bring the people we are dating who will be interrogated to make sure that they are with us. So she doesn't expect us to come because and I quote 'nobody would be stupid or desperate enough to be with us'. She said some other stuff too, things I will not repeat." Chloe would not repeat the harsh insults thrown at her and Bruce and did not want to upset her uncle any farther, knowing The Other Guy could surface at any minute.

And The Other Guy wanted to make an appearance, but Bruce kept him at bay. The Other Guy protected Bruce, while Bruce protected Chloe. The Other Guy was there to 'protect' Bruce, though he did not agree with his methods. The Other Guy appeared when Bruce should have died, that much Gamma radiation should have killed him in seconds. But it manifested into the Hulk, who decided to protect Bruce. He got angry when too many people messed with Bruce for his liking. He appeared when Bruce's heart rate got to high, thinking Bruce was panicking and needed to be saved. Sometimes The Other Guy appeared to much, sometimes he really did help.

After years of losing and gaining control he finally learned to balance. Bruce and the Hulk learned to work together. Bruce stayed out most of the time, so less people would get hurt, while the Hulk looked for threats. He had actually called out a few over the years, people who were suspicous that were threats. The Hulk was always on standby ready to attack, though he had the mind of a child. He did not speak in proper English sentences, but his parents did not either (though were better speakers than the Hulk). They learned to work with each other.

But when things came up about Bruce's past The Other Guy stood guard. He knew Bruce was angry and sad about his past. He knew peopke had hurt him before and The Other Guy was there to protect Bruce from harm. Whether physical or mental harm, and his family fell into both categories. His siblings were extremely gruff with him, his brother and his twin, Chloe's mother Bonnie, being the worst. They said they were trying to toughen him up for the world, but there ways of going about things were not safe. And though his mother never maliciously hit him, that did not mean he was not hurt. She oftened said his older brother was better and criticized Bruce. But Bruce was extremely close with his father, he was no longer alive. If this meant seeing his father he would go, but he would not see him. His father is the reason Bruce was Bruce. He could not go without his father there.

But Bruce did want to go, he would not want to back away. He did not want to be the scared kid he was claimed to be. He did not want to hide away like he always did. He wanted them to be shocked when he walked in with Nat on his arm. Though he did not view her as arm candy. He wanted to prove he went farther than his siblings, just like he dreamed of. He wanted to be himself and not just their annoying little brother.

Bruce also did not want his family to meet Nat, not the other way around. He did not want them to offend Nat, one of best things that had walked into his life. The Banner's were known for being... abrupt and offending for lack of better terms. They were not the friendliest people. They had pushed away many people over the years because they were not exactly what they wanted in them. They had 'standards' they had said, and though he truly cared for Nat, she did not fit those impossible standards.

"But Tori and Gia will be there, I won't miss Tori's birthday" Chloe whispered as she began to cry again. She did not not want Bruce to go just because of her wanting to see her little sister and cousin. But Chloe ached to see her sister, to hold Tori while she played with Chloe's hair. The two were always together and it physically hurt Chloe to be away from her sister. She felt so guilty for causing all of these problems, for making her sister call her in the middle of night just so she could hear her voice after a nightmare.

Bruce was torn, part of him wanted to go to prove them wrong, but the other part did not want him or Chloe hurt. He did not want her to be upset by anything they were bound to say. "I don't know Chloe, with your mental health-" Bruce began to reason.

"I know what they will say, they're not creative, I've been hearing them say the same things for years." Chloe answered back. "I'll just go if you don't want to."

"No, I can go, just are you sure?" Bruce asked quietly. He took a step towards her and placed an arm on her shoulder. Chloe did not flinch; Bruce smiled at this small progress. "This is a lot to handle. Us going to see them; us bringing people." He wanted to say it was almost like bringing a cow to its slaughter.

It seemed like there was an unspoken conversation going on between the two. Something was missing in what they said, some undertone that only they knew. But what Bruce was trying to say without outright saying was 'will you be ready if they turn you away'? Their family was not that loving, things were casually mentioned that should not have been thought of let alone said. Mistakes were not tolerated by his living family. His father did tolerate mistakes depending on what they were, he always said his greatest mistake led him to his life. Nobody knew what that meant, his father often talked with such wisdom that made it seem like the shrapnel that had impaled his face was still there. Bruce had figured it had to do with the fact that after the almost fatal attack he was sent home where he would later met Bruce's mother.

Bruce pulled his niece into a hug what everyone assumed was the end of their silent conversation. It was a gesture to signify the agreement. It was decided that they would go, Chloe ran it by Pietro who were officially dating but had not told the team yet.

But Bruce did not talk to Nat, she did not want to assume. So when he was in the lab, so he couldn't prepare an excuse and he could not try to run away, she asked him. That caused their first argument, because Bruce was trying to explain why he did not want to bring Nat. He yelled, "it's not that I don't you to meet them, I don't want them to meet you!" And Nat stormed out.

Bruce tried to go to back to work for a minute, but then realized he could not. Bruce cursed himself, for not being able to explain himself. Words were never his strong suit, even when he knew what they meant. He had trouble describing how he felt, or thought, or saw. But he knew someone who could.

So Bruce went out to the common room and said to his niece, " _Non dovrei avere il permesso di parlare."_ One look at her uncle and she knew he had said something stupid. Bruce was a man of science not emotions. She sent a glare to her uncle -which meant this was nowhere near over- and went to find Nat.

Although Chloe was not as close to the ex-assassin she still liked her. Nat tried to guide Chloe through life, teaching her things her mother never did. Giving her advice she needed to get by. Nat was almost a mother figure to Chloe. Someone she could trust. Always trying to boost her confidence or just trying to get to know her. Though it may have been because she was dating the blonde's uncle, Chloe still liked it.

She found Nat in the gun range, firing at a target repeatedly. She was trying to get her hurt out. She thought Bruce had really cared for her, wanted to try and be something. They had talked about seeing where this romance thing-y they had going on would go. And Nat did not have a blood family to introduce and Bruce did. Hell, she did not even know he did until he said Chloe was coming. He never talked about them, he later confided in her that he never looked them up because he would just _know_ what had happened to them, not _see._

Nat paused to reload. "Your target is dead now, that's overkill, and I'm pretty sure the Geneva Convention has a law against that." Nat smirked at Chloe's line, but raised an eyebrow at the fact she wore no earphones to protect her ears from the noise of the gunshots. Chloe was quiet as Nat reloaded. "My uncle is _stupido_ , for a man who went to college. He does not understand how to express his feelings because we were taught not to feel."

Nat quickly turned to face Chloe. She was surprised by the girl's statement; when the two talked of their childhood's they talked of fun times. They talked of running around and playing, of parties, of fun. Not a void of emotions like Nat's. They shared nothing of the truths they knew, because it hurt. It brought up bad memories they kept locked away, like they were taught. Chloe had told Pietro, but Bruce had more on his shoulders with 16 consecutive years and then The Other Guy.

Chloe motioned for Nat to sit; they sat on a bench facing each other. "Uncle B is going to be pissed I told you all this, but it will make sense. This one time before any of us were born, in fact my mom was pregnant with me and JJ, my other uncle, Johnny sent Bruce to look for the Christmas presents. He had searched the entire house, minus the attic, so he sent Uncle B up there by himself to look before Gram and Pop got home. Uncle Johnny, who was 21, had heard a car and thinking it was my grandparents left him up there so he could hide. And forgot a 5 year old Bruce in the attic with no heat during a December night that it snowed." Chloe rolled a piece of hair behind her ear and would not meet Nat's eyes. It was almost like she was embarrassed as if it was her.

"So he kept warm by sleeping in a chest filled with old clothes. All night. Uncle Johnny had fallen asleep and nobody realized until he was late for breakfast. Then Uncle Johnny said, 'that little shit is still in the attic? He's smart he should have figured out how to get out'. But you can only open the attic from the bottom. So they got Uncle B, who was so scared he would not let go of my grandfather. Then he wrote down how he felt in a journal, he had heard that it might help him. Writing about the fear of dying -because he thought he would die up there- did help, until my mom found it. She read it right in front of him, laughed and threw it back in his face. She told her siblings who told him to grow up, that he was a wuss so to say. That he should just learn to stop thinking so much, that _emotions break you_."

Well fuck, Nat thought, he never said anything to _that_ effect. She not expect something so neglectful to happen to a child in house with so many people. When Bruce did talk about his family, he idolized his father, like he was a prophet of some sort. He never said anything that bad had happened to him. But she remembered Chloe saying their family was a facade: it looked like a cookie cutter family for the most part, but was nowhere near perfect. They seemed to have hardly any problems but were filled with them.

No family was perfect, but that story was not a little accident. It wasn't like Bruce had scrapped his knee because his brother let go of the bike a little too early. Or he burnt his hand on the cookies when his older brothers back was turned. He left his little brother in frigid temperatures all night long. He forgot his little brother in an attic. Then went on to belittled him for not being able to 'find a way out' because there was not one and because he was scared. Of course he was scared, he was a five year old trapped in an attic overnight. Bruce must have been petrified because he was alone. He was probably waiting to be rescued all night, but no one knew until the morning.

Chloe continued, "my mom hates Bruce because she was the youngest and my grandfather's favorite until he was born, my uncle Johnny is apparently the better brother according to my family, my aunt Kelsey ignores him, aunt Chelsea still teases him like a two year old, my grandmother says he will never amount to anything like my grandfather, and the one person who actually _cared_ about him passes away and he never said goodbye. It's not that he's mortified to introduce _you_ to our family he is mortified to say this is my _family."_

Nat had to admit that made sense. If her family was like that, she would not want to tell anyone, even Bruce.

* * *

It was revealed to them team a few days later that Pietro and Chloe were dating. Tony was back at it again, trying to set her up with 'someone' (AKA Pietro). He was not discreet about it either, embarrassing the girl in front of some of the team. When she was making herself a sandwich Tony asked her what she looked for in guys. Sam and Rhoadey raised an eyebrow at each other and Steve just ignored him and continued to eat his sandwich.

Without stopping her motions she answered "a pulse." Steve choked on his sandwich and Sam busted out laughing. Another time Chloe was near Bucky and Tony asked what she thought of him. "He's hurting on the inside,but he's still really sweet. He tries to understand things, but gets really overwhelmed. Plus he's a surprisingly good pillow." Again Steve near choked, but on water this time. Chloe was known for leaning on the assassin, not to be cute, but so he could be grounded by touch. It had worked for her dad and for Bucky. Pietro had done it too her as well. (He got jealous of how comfortable Bucky was with her, but once he realized Bucky meant no harm, he calmed down. A little.)

Surprisingly it was by accident that Tony had found out. He needed something small and cylindrical to wrap a cord around to mend into place. He was walking around to find something wider than a pencil and decided to use Chloe's finger as she had small hands. "Shorty, I need your finger for a minute, please, you don't have to stand." She made a face but raised her arm to him. She had been asked weirder. "By the way, you have really soft hands." He wrapped the coil around her finger left it sit for a second then removed it.

"I know right," Pietro looked at Tony. He could never get over how soft her hands were. Pietro loved to grab her hand and hold it, not letting her go. Or when they cuddled she would grab his arm and run her fingers from the tips of his fingers to his forearms. The feeling of her smooth hands gave him goosebumps and a chill down his spine but he still loved the feeling (though it sometimes got him aroused).

Tony looked shocked at the speedster's statement. "And just how do you _know_ what her hands feel like?"

Pietro smirked at Tony. "Because I am, in fact, her boyfriend and it is my job to hold her hand." He replied smugly as possible. He was very annoyed at Tony because he thought the billionaire was trying to set Chloe and Bucky up. Chloe lightly smacked his arm and gave him an incredulous look. Pietro then remembered that they were not going to tell anyone besides Bruce and Wanda until they were farther into their relationship. Pietro muttered a Sokovian swear and apologized to her.

Tony raised an eyebrow and looked mad. "You mean I've been trying to get you two together and you've been dating?! This is why I stay in the lab!" He stormed off, mouthing swears. The young couple looked at each in confusion, but went back to what they were doing. Thinking that was the end of it, but Tony told Rhoadey, who told Steve, who told Sam who told pretty much everyone else.

In a few days they were getting ready to go to New Jersey, they had decided to get there a day or so before the holiday then a day later. Tony was lending them on of his cars. They had a hotel and everything prepared. It was good that Chloe and Bruce knew the area like the back of their hands, having lived there for years. They were excited to show their boyfriend and girlfriend the place where they grew up. The two would go on little tangions telling where they would take them and what they would do.

After a long goodbye between the twins, as they did not do well apart, they finally left. Chloe felt mixed emotions at their goodbye; of course it was good that the two cared so much, but Chloe felt a little jealous because the twins were able to hug. She had missed doing this like that with Joey, hugging and spending time together. Then she felt a pang of guilt for feeling such a thing, they were twins, why would they not be sorry to separate after all they had been through? Chloe internally smacked herself for being so selfish, even with her brother gone people still continued with their lives.

The drive wasn't that bad, Chloe was the driver. She had trouble being the passenger in cars because it gave her flashbacks to her car accident. She was awake for a moment after impact, until the pain from the car door piercing her leg was too much and she passed out. Sometimes driving at night bothered her, since that's when the accident occured. Bruce sat next to her giving her directions from his phone while Nat and Pietro sat in the back. Once they hit Central New Jersey Chloe told Bruce she knew the rest of the way.

They stopped to drop some their luggage at their hotel before getting something to eat. There was a knock on the door and Pietro answered it. A young girl pushed past him, "C!" She ran and jumped up to Chloe and was engulfed in a hug. "I missed you, I missed you!" Chloe hugged the girl tight as if she would slip away.

"Wha-?" Chloe started but then saw Gia standing there smirking. She hugged her sister tighter. "I missed you so much, my love." Chloe whispered with tears in her eyes. She began to whisper softly into her ears. While still holding the younger girl she moved her. The young girl laid her head on Chloe's shoulder while clinging to Chloe like a lifeline. Nat and Bruce walked in at the sound of new voices. "Nat, Pietro this is my little sister Tori. Uncle B, you met her when she was a baby."

Tori looked like Chloe but with Gia's coloring. She had Chloe's wide eyes that were slightly upturned, her small button nose, her high cheekbones, her smooth skin, her lips that were shaped in a small smile, and she had small curl-like waves in her long hair. While she was tall for her age, very skinny, with tanned skin and dark brown hair. Tori waved to the three, she would not remember Bruce, he had left for college when she was seven months old and today was her birthday.

They decided to go to one of their favorite pizza places which was not to far from where they were for lunch. Tori begged to go with Chloe and nobody could bare to force the two to separate, even for the ride. So they walked once Chloe assured she would be fine. Tori would decide where she would go for dinner as it was her birthday. At one point on the walk Pietro had tried to put his arm around Chloe. Tori slapped his hand away, "mine," she attempted to make a mean a face at him. To which Chloe chided her on and the younger girl said, "you're _my_ sister, _mine,_ he can have, like, fries or something."

"Ooh, I like this one already," Nat smirked. Tori gave the red head an overly wide smile then returned to glaring at Pietro.

Nat did like the younger girl, especially when she outsmarted Bruce. "So, dude who is my uncle," Bruce turned to her and made a face with a chuckle. "You accidently became He Who Shall Not Be Named obviously, nobody in our family has exhibited any symptom of turning green. So does your molecular structure also change when you transform? Do you become an entirely different person with abnormal D.N.A, or has your body just grown funky? If your D.N.A is hypothetically changed, how so? Can you breathe underwater, or not need oxygen, or does the being need to find food or any other necessity, do you have new cells?" She asked and her head tilted to the side in a curious manner. Tori had been delighted when she found out Bruce was coming to visit, she could finally have a higher level science debate with someone who was a real life scientist. Her and Chloe did have good conversations, but Tori was dying to have a real scientific debate with someone knowledgeable.

Everybody but Chloe and Gia stopped walking because they were used to her in depth questions. Pietro and Nat stared at Tori in amazement, how could someone so young use such profound vocabulary, correctly (they think)? It was obvious by her word choice that she was extremely intelligent, but also had a child's mind shown when she said the phrase grown funky. While Bruce stopped to think about her questions, searching his brain for an answer. He admitted the truth, "I haven't thought about it, but tell you what, if you come and help me we can find out together? It will be reason for you to come to New York."

Tori rolled her eyes, but did not look intimidating from her perch in her sister's arms. "I have a reason, her name's Chloe. I'm just not allowed to go." She mumbled something else and Chloe flicked her temple. "Alright, alright, I'll shut up." She huffed reluctantly.

They had eaten lunch, relaxed for a while, then went to dinner. Tori had chosen Chick-Fil-A out of all the places near them, Chloe explained the closest one to their house in California was over an hour away. Although it was worth the drive, the gas money added up. Tori wanted to stay the night with her sister, begging and pleading, and wound up staying anyway. Gia had to leave because she had work and if anyone asked Tori was having a sleepover with Gia's boyfriend's sister.

Pietro laid on the floor (to give the girls space), he too afraid to sleep. He was worried about meeting Chloe's family tomorrow, pretty much all at once. He only knew Gia and Tori besides his teammate and girlfriend. He worried they would not like him, not even because of his mutation or his post-villainous status. Just himself in general, he tended to rub people the wrong way. Yes he tended to be arrogant, tough, cocky, slightly selfish, and flirty. He had flirted a lot in the past, and still with Chloe who did not realize it half the time. He was very confident; he had gotten this far in life, he had a bomb sitting in front of him for two days, he was experimented on, and he survived multiple bullets to his chest and torso, he could do anything. He seemed selfish because he had very little to call his own, so he very seldom shared what he had (Wanda being an exception, and now Chloe). Then there was the whole evil mutant gone bad thing.

"Hey," Chloe said, sitting on the edge of the bed, "penny for your thoughts?" He gave her a look showing he had no idea what she meant. "It means do you want to talk about it?" Pietro pointed to her sister who slept on the bed, trying to come up with an excuse so it did not seem like he was ignoring her. Chloe lifted up the girl's pillow high then pulled it out from under her. The girl flopped down and continued to sleep. "When she sleeps nothing will wake her. So what's wrong?" So Pietro explained how he felt slowly. He had trouble expressing himself normal now he was speaking a foreign language. He stopped and prepared himself for her laugh, something he did whenever he expressed his feelings. Chloe then sat next to him and hugged him from the side. "Oh, c _aruccio,_ you have _niente di cui preoccuparsi. Sei più di quanto potrei mai chiedere."_

Pietro looked down at her, "that's great, but you can say that slower and in English, no?" He wanted to know what she said to him hoping it was sweet. But he did love how Italian rolled off her tongue like water cascading down a glass. It drove him wild at how smooth the words fell from her lips and how pleasing they sounded. "You can also teach me some Italian. More so the insults, because if your family is insulting me I want to know what they are saying." Chloe laughed softly making Pietro smile. It was hard to make her smile let alone laugh and her laugh was music to his ears.

Chloe leaned on his shoulder, "don't worry about what they think, they're weird. If my mom and her sisters and my grandma don't talk to you it's normal they hate everyone, my uncle Johnny is mean to everyone so it will be hard to tell if he likes you or not because he pretty hates everyone too, Ben will probably try to talk football with you but American football so tell him you didn't get channels where you lived, Ken is just antisocial it's not personal, Lia and Lacy probably won't talk to you because Gia likes you, Lia does everything to spite her sister and Lacy just hates males, and Macy will probably flirt with you-"

"You're not helping," Pietro grumbled. Her description of her family was not settling his nerves.

"I'm not done. They are assholes to everyone and especially to me; I try not to listen to them. I've heard the same things for years and it still hurts. I'm still working on not listening to them with my therapist. Do not listen to them, they're so... _preppy._ Everything has to be their way or the highway, but I am being civil. I'm not running away, they're still my _family_. But family doesn't always mean they care about you. Only uncle B, Gia, my sister, Jack and Zack, Julia, my uncle's wife Anne, and," she paused with words on the tip of her tongue. Pietro knew what they most likely were, _and my brother before he died._

Pietro could not imagine the guilt Wanda must have felt when his life was hanging in the balance. She had been so happy when he opened his eyes and did not smack him when he said 'you didn't see that coming' like she normally did. Pietro also could never imagine how Chloe must of felt. She knew the man who killed her brother, she dated him, she loved his abusive self. She watched as her brother died and was left to die with him and Joey did not live like Pietro did. He knew she would do anything to bring him back, but she could not. Chloe one day said to him 'I don't know which would be harder to go back and die instead of JJ or to live without him'. And that broke Pietro's heart.

The couple did a mixture of talking and cuddling that night (with a little kissing here and there). Bruce laid there awake all night wondering how his family would react to him. Yes, he was still a shy nerd but he was more powerful now. Would that matter or would he still be taunted and teased? Obviously the insults would have changed they could not call him a whiny baby anymore. But what would they say? Would they even care about him?

Usually at family gatherings he sat in the corner with his friend Jamie, but he was overseas. The room would be full, but they ignored everyone else. The only reason they got away with it was because they were so young. They were just kids at first, the did not know about politics or this person's affairs. Then they were just antisocial teenagers but he heard what his mother's friends say 'he will get older and smarter, he's already extremely intelligent, he'll be the child to continue your legacy Marie, not Charlie's.' They finished it with a pat on shoulder and depending on the person a kiss on the cheek.

Nobody knew that although his mother had multiple charities she collected money under the table from them. She claimed to be helping deaf people, like herself and husband, but she got some the money. His dad knew nothing of it, his mother knew how to hide it well. Bruce himself did not find out until many years later. His mother spent money galore, causing fights. Money was tough for a while there, but they still went to banquets and charity events with fake smiles on their faces and lips sewn shut.

Soon it was morning and time to get up, even though everyone but Tori was up. Nat had not slept well either, most likely from nerves. Chloe woke the girl up calmly; calling for her and lightly shaking her. Tori tried to ignore her but Chloe resulted to tickling her sister. The sound of the child's laugh brought a smile to Chloe's face. "Stop it, s _trana bionda_!"

And soon they were all ready to go, dinner would be early because of the football game people were watching. It was more of a late lunch than an early dinner and it was a good thing because Chloe's stomach was slightly rumbling. After years of forcing herself not to eat she had had lost hunger cues. Her stomach hardly ever growled and she never felt hungry. But because of Bruce and Pietro getting her to eat regularly she had got some back. But she had hardly been eating as of late. Everyone thought it was solely from stress of seeing her mother, so they did not push too much. But it was because Chloe was trying to lose weight. She had gained weight since moving to New York and knew her mother would point it out. Her nerves did not help.

As they drove Tori rambled about what everyone had been up too. She kept confusing Pietro because she kept talking about 'Julie Jules', not realizing she meant Julia. Tori and Julia were close like Chloe and Gia were even with Julia being five years Tori's senior. She complained of her identical twin cousins Jack and Zack and how she was not allowed to have sleepovers with them anymore because of their genders. Tori did not see a problem, they were cousins and besides her siblings slept in the same bed for almost three years after she was born. Chloe pointed out that they had no choice, there was no room for another bed in their house, nor could they sleep on the couch because that where their dad was sent to most nights.

The group pulled up at a large white house. It looked large and spacious with a two door garage and driveway on the side. Two french doors were at the front of the house, but were focused on the chandelier hanging from the window above. The structure was shiny and smooth in looks with little crystal hanging from gold prongs. The lawn was neatly kept and the gardens all had were trimmed bushes and not a weed in sight.

Bruce smirked at seeing how the white rose bush was blooming beneath his window. His mother prided herself on the natural white roses that grew in her garden; Bruce secretly loved that bush because of the flowered scent it had a strong aroma that would waft into his room. It contrasted the smell of cleaners so much that he would never complain about having to weed it. His mother and him would debate over who's it was because Bruce was the only one allowed to take care of it.

Bruce's smirk fell when he noticed something missing from the lampost, but never said anything no matter how much it hurt. The group had piled out of the car that had pulled up in front of the house. In a creepy voice like the one from _Poltergeist_ someone said, " _They're here_!"

"Julie Jules, we don't speak of your creepy ass movies!" Tori yelled at her cousin. Just then, two young boys came running up to the group with a girl, older than the twins and Tori but younger than Chloe, following behind them. The two boys were the same height as Tori and looked identical. The same raven hair, brown eyes, thin limbs, and tanned skin. Even the girl looked the same though her hair was a lighter brown then the rest of them.

The two boys ran up and hugged Chloe at the same him, both saying hello in Italian. Chloe hugged the two and saw notes on their backs, labeling which twin as which. She had no doubt Julia had something to do with it as they were damn near impossible. Julia went over to Bruce and slightly tilted her head as she studied him. "I remember you, you're Bruce, my mom said you were bad, but your not. Bad people don't give piggyback rides, watch dumb _ragazzino_ cartoons, and make slime with kids. Boys," Julia turned to the twins who were talking to Chloe and pointed at Bruce, "he's cool." Chloe laughed at Julia's statements.

"He's the Hulk!" Tori announced proudly making Bruce slightly cringe. "And he's dating Black Widow! If that isn't goals I don't know what is." He waited for the kids to run away or ask questions that made him uncomfortable.

"So we might have Black Widow as an Aunt in the future?" One twin, Jack, asked. "S _ei una meraviglia!_ Put a ring on 'er!" The other twin, Zack, finished. Chloe and Pietro laughed. The twins looked at Pietro and at the same time asked, "who are you?" Chloe explained that her and Pietro were dating. Jack began pulling Chloe forward and Zack grabbed Pietro hand to bring him along with Tori trailing behind. "We gotta show Macy. She won't believe Chloe has a boyfriend and she don't!"

Nat tried not to smirk at the family though she was still recovering from the 'put a ring on her' line the little boy gave. She understood kids were blunt she just wasn't expecting him to be that blunt. She did not even know the kid's name and he probably did not remember Bruce. Yet he was giving his uncle dating advice. She did not know how old they were; she thought Tori was a pre-teen but was eight.

Julia walked up to Bruce and grabbed one hand, "c'mon, Gram is waitin' to see you," she grabbed Nat's hand, "you too. I'm Julia by the way." Her voice was soft and inviting. She led them up the walk and into the house.

Suddenly Nat and Pietro were introduced to person after person. Each with a handshake and a name similar to another person's name. There were a lot of people, all tall with typical Italian features that made them hard to differentiate. Chloe's dad was the easiest, along with two of her uncles and her aunt who had all married in. Surprisingly the other set of identical twins were fairly easy to tell apart. Macy wore a form fitting outfit, makeup, jewelry, and her hair all done up. Meanwhile the older twin Lacy wore a more plain and simple outfit of jeans, a t-shirt, flannel, and her hair pulled back with a headband and then a ponytail. Both were just an inch shorter than Pietro, the same size as Bruce. Lia wore something similar to Macy and Gia just wore a nice shirt and black pants, her work uniform as she had leave early for work.

When Bruce's mom saw him she hugged him, making him tense. His mother did not hug him, period. She was not the affectionate type in general and barely smile as is. She said something to him and he said, "hey Ma." Once she let go he motioned to Nat, "this is Nat."

"She's real?!" Someone asked. It was Bruce's older brother Johnny, who was very clearly checking Nat out. Nat made a face showing she was confused but none of the family understood. Nat showed her emotions differently than others, if one knew her they learned to pick them up. A girl hit Johnny and gave him a look that meant she clearly wasn't pleased, she was his wife.

Bruce's mother began to shoo the males away, including Bruce and Pietro, to the Family Room to continue watching the game. "Don't want 'em poutin' 'cause the missed somethin'." She turned to Chloe "you'll watch the _bambini_ in the basement." She pointed to a door leading to said basement.

The woman was about to continue when one of the teenage girls, Lacy, if Nat remembered correctly, interrupted. "Aren't you worried 'bout her killin' the kids like she did Joey?" Chloe's head automatically went down and her face turned bright red. It took all of Nat's self-control not to whack the girl for saying that about her _cousin._ How could she say something so rude and hurtful about her cousin? Chloe did not mean for anything bad to happen to her brother.

Mrs. Banner waved the girl off. "Rather it be jus' the kids rather than all of us. You," she pointed to Nat "can make more." Nat curled her toes as tight as she could, a simple way to hide her anger. So they just imagined Nat and Bruce to have kids? Of course Nat had wanted kids at one point, to be a mother to her own child, something her mother was robbed of. But since the Red Room that dream had drifted away like a puff of smoke. She could never carry children, a blessing and a curse. She could never get pregnant from a mission, but could never have a child period.

The rest of females all went into the kitchen and Nat followed, she had planned to ask if the needed help. Bruce's only sister-in-law Anne, walked next to her and whispered softly to her, "don't let them get your goat. They love any reactions good or bad. They love it when you show your angry." Anne continued on to the kitchen returning to her duty and Nat smirked. She understood what they wanted and they sure as shit weren't getting it.

Pietro sat on a metal chair facing the T.V. There were not enough couch seats for all of them to sit at, but Pietro wasn't paying attention to the T.V. Out of the corner of his eye (though people would not know because of his superspeed) he observed the family members. Chloe's dad sat closest to the exit of the room on a recliner with his hand gripping the lever for the foot rest and eyes darting around the room. Chloe would later explain he always did things like that. He sat by the nearest exit and grabbed the closest thing he could use as a weapon; that was the military training inbedded in him.

Most of the males in the room sat on the edge of the couch with their legs spread and leaning on them. Their eyes glued to the game, darting from player to player. Except Ken, he sat back on the couch with his arms crossed clearly not paying attention. Ben looked back at his brother. "Dude, move, do somethin', you're freakin' me out with that face."

Ken didn't even look at his brother and said, "we're twins, we look the same, you idiot." Pietro smirked at the quiet male's remark.

"Thanks man," Ben said taking a sip of his beer. Could he be of drinking age? No, he wasn't, but the family all started drinking young because they were stereotypical Italians and drank wine with meals.

After two more commercials Pietro stood to go check on Chloe. None of the guys besides Bruce and Ken said anything. Chloe's dad just followed him with his eyes, but Pietro knew that look, the man was assessing for a threat. Not that Pietro blamed him, he could be a threat, the speedster was dating the man's daughter.

Pietro walked toward the basement door where he had seen Chloe take the four kids. As the door came into view he noticed one of the 'Twinnies' as Chloe had mentioned walk up to him. He remembered her to be Macy, the flirty one. She walked up to him, clearly checking him out. "For someone who seems like a _gallinello_ , you seemed to be into the wrong girls." Pietro raised an eyebrow at her, not knowing what that word meant. "You picked a girl who is painstakingly innocent until she gets what she wants then she'll probably create another fake story to cover her tracks. You need a real woman."

She tried to grab Pietro's shirt, but he moved her hand away. "I'm going to go see _my girlfriend_ now," and he moved past her and finally began down the stairs.

The sight Pietro saw made him smile, Chloe was playing a game with Julia as the twin boys and Tori watched on. Her face showed she was heavily concentrated as Julia was. Pietro had seen the game but did not know what it was called; it was played on a tabletop with a little net down the middle. Both hit a ball back and forth with paddles. Just as Chloe served she called out, "your ping is no match for my pong!" And both cried out battle cries as the hit the ball. The went back and forth for a few moments until Julia knocked it out of Chloe's reach. "I just lost a game of Ping-Pong to a twelve year old." She noticed Pietro watching on, "oh hey, babe."

Tori took Chloe's place and began to play against Julia, Pietro put his arm around Chloe's shoulders and began to rub her arm. "How are you doing?" he asked her quietly.

"I'm okay," Chloe leaned her head on his shoulders. "Nervous but okay," Pietro kissed her head and the two watched the kids play the game.

It made both smile and wonder at once. Pietro wondered what it would be like to have kids in the future. He had always dreamed of having a real family, it was not like his was when his parents were alive, but he wanted to see what he missed out on. He had always imagined settling down as much as he could with being an Avenger and having a couple of kids. He had wanted a big family since he only had Wanda for so long. Pietro had wanted to love his own children but did not know how to be a father. He had no clue because he had no one to show him. Pietro had never vocalized this to Chloe because they had only been dating for two months.

Chloe was thinking about the baby she had lost. It would be due right around this time, but her body was not ready to carry a child. She had wished she had known about the baby sooner so she could do everything to keep it. Chloe had always wanted kids, to be a mother to her own kids unlike her mother. Her father tried, but his mental health got in the way. She and her brother had practically raised her sister and she baby sat so she knew how to deal with kids. She and Joey got up with their sister as an infant, they knew how to take care of kids. Chloe wished she had not miscarried; it was not her baby's fault she was irresponsible (at least in her mind she was) why should her baby suffer? She would have loved her baby no matter what. She might have ran away with Brad, but she had a feeling her brother would have stopped that. But then that chain of events would have never happened and though her brother would be alive, she would have never met Pietro. But, she would have her baby. Chloe felt responsible for not just her brother's death, but that of her unborn child's as well.

"What's wrong, _Moje slniečko?"_ Pietro asked her noticing tears in her eyes. She peered over at the kids who were blissfully unaware of her mental turmoil. Just then someone called for dinner and the kids bounded up the stairs. "We will talk later, yes?" Chloe nodded and they started up the stairs to dinner.

The couple were the last to join the table as Chloe had yet to see Ken's girlfriend who had come late due to a charity event. They said hello, Chloe had always liked Angie, she was perfect for Ken. Chloe and Pietro sat next to each other, Gia on Chloe's one side and Macy on Pietro's. The family said Grace all grabbing hands and Tori saying it as it was her turn. She spoke fast and in Italian, Pietro had no clue what was said. At the end the family said " _Salud,_ _chindon_ _"_ and began to eat.

As dinner continued Bruce and Chloe continued to internally squirm; many embarrassing stories were told of the two. Most of them inaccurate, but the premise was the same. Nat had never seen Bruce blush at all, let alone that red. His brother, Johnny, kept telling stories from when he was a baby. Bruce could not stay silent any longer, "weren't you the one who left your twin daughters at a bar and never told me never to tell your wife or you would kill me?" Johnny's eyes widened and his wife Anne's eyes did as well. "What, you said not to tell her, I didn't tell her, I just reminded you." Bruce took a bite of his food. Anne smacked her husband's arm and began to scold him.

Dinner was over and the dishes were cleaned. Chloe had brought a bag of gifts for the birthdays she had missed earning a raised eyebrow from the family members. She had gotten the identical twin boys two action figures to finally finish their _Avengers_ set. Julia had gotten the oil pastel Captain America drawing Chloe had been working on for over three years, now with Steve's signature. She got each of her cousin's something, handing them each gifts.

Before the young adults could open their gifts or anybody could say anything Chloe's mom stormed forward and pulled her closer to her face. "You ain't foolin' me, you slut!" She yelled in Chloe's face and slapped her cheek. Bruce clutched Nat's hand hard, hoping he would not Hulk out. Pietro went to go to her but Gia grabbed his hand. Everybody knew better than to stop Bonnie while on a rampage, it only made it worse, especially for Chloe. "My Joey's still dead, whatcha gotta say about that?"

Chloe looked at her mother dead in the eye, something she hardly ever did. She hated seeing the hatred in her mother's eyes. With tears threatening to spill she simply turned her head slightly. "Go ahead, nothing hurts more than knowing Joey's dead." Bonnie pushed her back making her stumble backward. With one last look at her mother she turned and left. And the group from the tower followed.

* * *

Before they left the next day, Chloe suggested they go see her grandfather, Bruce's father. As they drove to the cemetery, Bruce's heart was pounding. The Other Guy was on high alert, ready to attack a threat. But this was Bruce's way of talking to his dad, something he hadn't done in years. Bruce was very close with his father, something he prided himself on. He clung to every word his father said, as if it would save his soul from the devil. The man held wisdom of a powerful being, something Bruce lacked. Bruce had knowledge, his father was wise. Bruce knew when his dad spoke, it was meaningful because he knew he was lucky to speak. He had always wondered what his father would have to say about him, about what he had done. But now he was more afraid that he could not say anything back.

Chloe remembered where he was buried and pulled up. Bruce began to unbuckle but Chloe asked, "You okay?"

"I should be asking you," Chloe gave a small smile and the two exited the car. Bruce followed Chloe to the plot and he stared at the stone. It said his father's name, but that was not his father. Bruce had so much to say to his father, but no way to say it. Hell, he could speak multiple languages, but not a word was spoken. He wanted to scream the thought he had conjured but nothing came out. God, he had failed his hero. He had tried so hard to do what was right. To recreate the Super Soldier Serum and that did not work. He created the Hulk instead. Hell, he could never rid the world of the Hulk, he had tried and failed. Bruce thought he was nothing like his father, he did not bring peace, he brought destruction. God he was so fucking angry.

Nat and Pietro stayed in the car, they were there for moral support, but gave them space. Nat broke the silence, "I don't get why Chloe tilted her head yesterday." She admitted. Nat had seen a lot of things over the years, but offering the person a hit was a new one.

Pietro spoke up, "I asked Chloe, she said it was from a movie or something. _'So if someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn and offer him your left'_. Or something like that." He shrugged not understanding the significance behind it.

Bruce was about to storm away, but Chloe had grabbed his hand. He had forgotten she was there. She had tears in her eyes. And suddenly she began to sing. It was song he had not heard in years, and every now and again it popped into his head. He could never remember the words, but knew they meant a lot to him.

 _"Make me a channel of your peace,_ _Where there is hatred let me bring your love,_ _Where there is injury, your pardon Lord,_ _And where there's doubt, true faith in you,_ _Make me a channel of your peace,_ _Where there's despair in life let me bring hope,_ _Where there is darkness, only light,_ _And where there's sadness ever joy,_ _Oh, master grant that I may never seek,_ _So much to be consoled as to console,_ _To be understood as to understand,_ _To be loved as to love with all my soul Make me a channel of your peace_ _Where there's despair in life let me bring hope_ _Where there is darkness, only light,_ _And where there's sadness ever joy"_

* * *

 ** _Translations:_**

 _ **Non dovrei avere il permesso di parlare- I should not be allowed to speak (Italian)**_

 ** _Stupido- Stupid (Italian)_**

 _ **Caruccio – A darling guy (Italian)**_

 _ **niente di cui preoccuparsi- Nothing to worry over (Italian)**_

 _ **Sei più di quanto potrei mai chiedere- You are more than I could ever ask for (Italian)**_

 ** _Strana bionda- Blonde weirdo (Italian)_**

 ** _Ragazzino- Little kid (Italian)_**

 _ **bambini- kids**_

 _ **Sei una meraviglia- You are a marvel (Italian) (see what I did there)**_

 _ **Gallinello – A cheeky boy (Italian)**_

 _ **Moje slniečko- My sunshine (Slovak)**_

 _ **Salud**_ ** _chindon_** _ **\- Cheers (Italian)**_

 _ **Sorry this took so long. I have been crazy busy and low on** **motivation** **. Please review hopefully it will give me some!**_


	15. Chapter 15

_**So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, self-destructive thoughts, self-hate, rape, verbal abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, and survivor's guilt. I will put a warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe.**_

 _ **Also, Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I did not like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale. I saw Infinity Wars and I will tell you NOTHING. Though I will say I am very shookth because of {insert spoilers here}. So let's be like Doctor Strange who saw over fourteen million endings and didn't spoil it for us. If you want to talk/rant about it PM me I will listen and respond.**_

 _ **Warning: Chloe and Pietro tooth-rotting fluffiness, first true fight, Chloe has a mini breakdown, mentions of past rape, PTSD, guilt, mentions of SPIDERMAN (more of him in the next chapter), a confrontation, some deep-seated feels,**_

 _ **Thank**_ _ **you**_ ** _chimpnsocks,_** _ **for reviewing.**_

 _ **I have been crazy busy. I also stopped to take more time for therapy, I realized that I am falling back into really bad habits. I don't know how my brain works yet.**_

 _ **I want to explain that some of the stories that have been brought up or will be brought up were based on things I have seen in my family. Some stories are my mother's because her brothers were brutal and some are stories I have heard from other people. Some have in fact happened some I have just changed aspects too. I try to make Chloe's reactions as authentic as possible for someone like her. I did not want her to act tough or blow it off, I wanted to show how someone as sensitive as her would react.**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel, unfortunately, or Smooth Criminal by Micheal Jackson, or Disneyland; only my OCs**_

* * *

December flew by and before anyone knew it, it was Bruce's birthday. In fact, nobody besides Chloe and Bruce knew, because Bruce did not like his birthday. It was Christmas Eve to be exact. Chloe had spent the day in and out of Bruce's lab, where he had been spending more than his already unnatural amount of time. His birthday was always a sore spot for him, being on Christmas Eve. He never really had big parties with his friends or classmates because he did not have many friends. So usually his parents took him and Jamie somewhere. But his birthday was never about _him,_ every year his mother had a charity event party of sorts on the day. His birthday was spent running from place to place helping to prepare for the party.

Bruce was always on running duty with his father. Going from bakeries, to stores, to liquor stores (in the state of New Jersey you can only purchase alcohol at specific liquor store, restaurants, and bars, not at normal stores), to stores that sold tablecloths, caterers, and, of course, to the fish market to get dinner together for the next day. Meanwhile, Chloe and whoever she chose to help her were always at his house preparing for _Festa Dei Sette Pesci._ All of the pasta was prepped along with side dishes.

Then came the party, it was supposed to be fun. Bruce remembers being forced to wear a three-piece suit and being bored. He remembered waiting on pins and needles until midnight when he and his younger family members got their Christmas Eve presents, their pajamas for the night. Then once everyone had left his mother left it for a cleanup crew (she always set it up herself) they went to his house. It was still dark out so the kids were sent to bed, and the party drained their energy until Santa Claus came. They opened gifts, ate a very small breakfast and played with new toys. Well at least Bruce did, Chloe was always helping cook the big dinner. Then came the main course that Bruce waited all year for, The Feast of the Seven Fishes. Shrimp scampi, lobster ravioli, crab cakes, scallops, oyster snack, fried calamari, and Baccalà lasagna. Bruce loved the tradition, the warm atmosphere in the house that was never there. There were laughs and happiness circulating in the air. It reminded Bruce of his ignorance as a child.

Plus Chloe was an amazing cook.

Chloe said she did not want to cook this year, it was a lot for her to cook. Bruce didn't blame her, he had seen how much she cooked on a normal basis for the team. But he finally had a chance to have the feast once again after six years of yearning to taste the cuisine. He never said a thing to Chloe though, he did not want to pressure her as his family did.

So when Chloe asked him to close his eyes and to trust her, Bruce should have known something was up. She had a sneaky smile on her face, _you look like Joey when you smirk like that,_ those words were on the tip of his tongue. He knew not to say them, not to ruin her happiness. But he listened, knowing Chloe would not steer him wrong. Chloe led him to the common room and when he opened his eyes he saw the team sitting around the dinner. Overflowing on the coffee table was _Festa Dei Sette Pesci,_ his favorite meal. Even Shrimp Scampi, he and Chloe's favorite dish. He turned to her and she wore a shy smile. " _Buon compleanno,"_ Chloe whispered and hugged her uncle.

Bruce sat down next Nat and Chloe next to Pietro. Pietro's arm automatically went around her and Bruce wanted to tell him to move his arm. But he remembered they were dating, something he was still getting used to. In his mind, Chloe was still a four-year-old who would crawl into his bed with her stuffed animals and dollies at night. She was still the little girl he remembered, but she was not. Chloe grew up and Bruce missed it. Pushing that thought from his head he vocalized a question. "When did you do this?" He gestured to the table filled with seafood.

"Well, I had help from Nat, Bucky, Pietro, and Wanda," she said blushing slightly. "I gave them _specific_ instructions and checked in on them." Chloe did not have written copies of certain recipes, all had been passed down by mouth. All were known by heart, she had to stop and think of measurements because she created the recipes mindlessly. And because everything was from scratch she had to be very specific with the directions she gave.

Dinner was served and everyone ate their fill and more. Vision had noticed Chloe eyeing up the shrimp scampi and handed her a spoonful. She sighed and handed her plate to Pietro. "Thank you," she explained," but I am very allergic to shrimp, no matter how much I love it." After dinner, nobody could move as to how full they were. That made Chloe smile, she had done her job.

Chloe and Bruce kept nudging each other playfully. They gradually become harder shoves until Bruce pushed Chloe making her land sideways on the couch. She turned to face him, "whoa, when did you get so strong?!"

Bruce smirked at her, "same time the voice got lower." He then poked her side causing her to yelp slightly.

"Present time!" Tony yelled jumping to sit on the couch. Since there were so many in the group, they had done a secret Santa.

Tony had realized Chloe had almost no money, her mother had what was left to 'compensate' what Chloe had done. He had found out Chloe herself had planned her brother's funeral, paying every penny, which was supposed to go to college. But complained not about paying for the services, but how she took the money she had left as payment. 'How can money equate to the loss of Joey? How will money ease the pain of knowing my brother never turned eighteen or even graduated high school?' She had said to him one day. Still, she refused to take any money from him. She was looking for a job, claiming it would keep her busy. She wanted to earn her own money, not be useless and take from Tony.

Bruce went first, thus creating the chain. Everyone had something for someone, somethings were simple as could be while some had a deeper meaning. Chloe went last, it was not planned, she had gotten Bruce. His response was "are you going to give me back the shirt you're wearing. Because I know you didn't go to Ocean City High and I've been missing that for years. And I know its mine, that hole was from Jamie poking me in shop class." He said with a hint of a smirk.

Chloe looked down at her shirt, " _Gesù, Maria e Giuseppe, dovevi dimenticare._ Actually, Joey stole this, then he stretched it out so it's mine now. If you want it back, you might have to fight my sister for it, she's been gunning for it for years." Chloe handed him his present, "Aunt Anne helped and said happy birthday." This caused Bruce to raise an eyebrow, he did not see the two speak at the Thanksgiving disaster. Chloe smiled as Bruce tore away the wrapping paper.

Bruce froze at the gift, a shadow box. The shadow box was black, but that's not what caused his heart to leap in his throat. Inside was the piece of his house that was missing, the plaque on the lamppost. The house he grew up in had an all-white lamppost with a little plaque hanging on it. His father had made it years before he was born. Connecting the sign to the pole was the family name, Banner. Then a silhouette of a dog, a bull mastiff to be exact, the dog his father dreamed of having and then adopted. At the bottom was a block with the house number upon on it. 1224; Bruce's birthday.

Bruce never really felt like he belonged in the family, he was always different. He siblings constantly reminded him of it. He loved science and learning new things while his siblings preferred to get blackout drunk and party. Bruce was a homebody, he would rather read a book than go out and socialize. He had once told his father this when they were coming home from the store. His father had pointed to the sign and said "you are most definitely apart of this family, see there's our last name, then our Annie, and then your birthday. December 24th; 1224. We will never forget you." His dad rubbed his shoulder and then their family Bull Mastiff, Annie, came out to greet them. He remembered being happy his dad had said that, then he read a story to Annie before bed, falling asleep in the process.

Even though Annie was a dog she was Bruce's first friend. His father had adopted the dog a few months prior to finding out they were having Bruce. Since his siblings had plans to move out and his parents were about to become 'empty-nesters' they got the puppy (though they were never really going to be far away from their oldest children because they did not move that far). Then Bruce's mom found out she was pregnant again with Bruce and told his dad. His dad thought his wife was lying and trying to get him to get rid of the puppy and had said 'you and the kids can go, Annie is staying.' Then they realized they were having a baby and if Annie so much as nipped the baby, she would be given to a new family.

When Bruce was brought home the had to pull Annie from him because she would not stop licking his face. She followed Bruce around, she diligently sat by him while he slept, guarding the baby. Annie was Bruce's first friend, he knew no children his age until he was six because his parents knew nobody with a child his age. When Bruce got older she would play with him, bring him blocks to build with, cuddling while he read. Every morning when Bruce ate his breakfast at his little table, he sat on her, his tiny form was nothing against her minimum 180 pounds of weight. She waited until he was done to move (of course he would sneak her some people food). Annie was well trained, she could open the back door with her nose if she had to go to the bathroom, she got the newspaper for his dad each morning, she walked with him halfway to the bus, the park where he met Jamie. And his dad would put a treat on her nose, saying 'wait' and would until he said go. And anytime she sneezed or hit something he would ask, " _Annie are you ok?_ _Are you ok, Annie?"_ To the tune of _Smooth Criminal._

Bruce smiled at the gift, it seemed so simple, but it meant the world to him. It seemed so small, but it made him happy. Bruce grabbed Chloe and pulled her into a hug. His niece was always so thoughtful, especially when it came to gifts. She was observant like that.

After a while, the group had split into smaller groups and were having separate conversations. Chloe was sitting on the couch talking with Wanda, her hands were moving as she talked. Pietro was talking with Steve, Bucky, and Sam about different things. "So," Steve turned to Pietro, "what's it like dating Chloe?" He was not trying to pry, he was just making sure everything was alright. Steve talked with Chloe a lot and was becoming slightly protective over her.

Pietro thought for a moment, thinking of what to say. As usual, his answer in his head was in his native tongue so he had to think of the translation before speaking. After a moment he responded, "her behavior baffles me, she is not used to a male's affection," Sam tried not to laugh and Bucky raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. Pietro's eyes widened, "Not in that way. What I mean is I show any type of interest or affection and she 'loses her mind' so to say." It was Steve's turn to raise an eyebrow. "For example yesterday I asked her what she was reading, she showed me the title, and I asked her to tell me more about it and she was very confused as to why I would bother with something so 'insignificant' that she liked. If I compliment her she starts blushing cries every other time. She's not used to me, or anyone, paying attention to her it seems." The three of them turned to see Chloe with her tilted back, laughing with Wanda.

Wanda moved to get slightly get closer to her friend. "Wait, so you just found out you having a wedding to go to?" She was trying not to laugh.

"Yes, it was supposed to be in like May, but they moved the date up to three weeks from now. And I found like, two hours ago that apparently, I'm a bridesmaid." Chloe made a face and threw her hands up. She went to explain how her friend had called her saying her dress was purchased she just had to get fitted. Chloe (who had a dress ready) and her friend confusedly went back and forth for a few minutes until her friend said that all her bridesmaids were going to match. Chloe then went, 'Nanette am I a bridesmaid?' There was a silence, then the sound of Nanette swearing at herself Hebrew for forgetting to ask her friend and her fiance Kamekona trying not to wheeze in the background.

Wanda asked where the wedding was and details about it. Chloe explained how it was between her two friends from Hawaii, so it was taking place in Hawaii. She explained that were getting married so young because of Nanette's father being a very strict Rabbi. "I'm going to a Hawaiian-Jewish beach wedding, he's already being lenient. They tried telling her that she couldn't have "Here Comes The Bride" playing when she walks down the aisle, or in their case beach because it is supposedly a Pagan song. Her response was she took out her phone and said, 'you call my _אבא_ and tell him he cannot walk his only daughter down the aisle to that song'."

Chloe was very excited for the beach wedding, she had been friends with the couple since she was eleven. In fact, she was the reason they finally admitted their feelings for each other. They had huge crushes on each other (apparently they manifested long before Chloe and Joey became their friends) and it was painful to watch. She sounded like a hypocrite because of her and Pietro but the two admitted to each other how they wanted a partner like the other, sighed dramatically, and then walked away. After Nani (Nanette's nickname) had gone on a thirty-seven and a half minute rhapsody to her and their friend Amber, about how wonderful Kamekona was, Chloe had enough. Her and Nani were in their middle school's musical whilst Kamekona was apart of the lighting crew. She tricked the two into entering the dressing room where she kept them until they admitted their feelings. Now they were getting married.

Chloe had asked Pietro to go with her. He at first was apprehensive, he did not know these people at all, only from what Chloe had told him. And he was not specifically invited to this wedding or any other wedding for that matter. He was born to a Jewish family and celebrated the holidays, though he and Wanda did not go through _tevilah_ because they were so young, he knew about the culture. Though he knew nothing about the Hawaiian culture. Pietro eventually agreed when Chloe said he was her plus one.

One day while Chloe was making soup for dinner, Tony brought a young adult to meet the Avengers. The boy looked starstruck and nervous all at the same time. His eyes darting from person to person. But when he got semi-close enough to Chloe her eyes widened in terror and she quickly excused herself. Pietro's eyebrow's knitted together and then he followed her, knowing a panic attack was on its way.

Pietro saw that her bathroom door was closed and became increasingly worried. Memories of their first conversation flashed before him. He knocked on the harder than he normally would have due to his panic. He did not hear anything when he called her name so he busted in the door. Pietro's heart was racing faster than normal as his mind flashed through the possibilities of what she could be doing. She had looked so panicked before she had run off and she looked no better now.

Chloe was sitting on the bathroom floor with her knees pressed to her chest. Her face was too except for her eyes peeking out and looking up at Pietro. He could see the tears and terror in her eyes. She was slightly trembling as she looked at him. Pietro quickly kneeled in front of her. " _Princezná_ , what is wrong?" He pushed a piece of fallen hair behind her ear.

"The- the boy," she began, her voice shaking along with her body, "his cologne." Tears spilled from her eyes. "JJ used to wear it," Pietro scooted closer to her rubbing her arm. "We're Italian so he always wore _way_ too much," he chuckled at that. "But then Brad started wearing it," Pietro's smile fell and his darkened, not at Chloe but at her ex-boyfriend. "He wore a lot too. He used to spray it on me after we," she paused, "or he gave me something. To hide the smell of what we had done." Chloe buried her head in her knees. "Right around this time last year was when I got pregnant..."

Pietro then pulled her into his lap. He could hear her hyperventilating as she cried. He tried to soothe her but she had too many emotions pent up. He told her she did nothing wrong, she never agreed to anything. 'I knew better than to say no' she had pointed out. He then kissed her head and began to tell her how much he cared about her.

Pietro was holding his anger in, he wanted to punch this asshole for all he had to her. Chloe was so innocent and her last boyfriend took that from her. She was young and thought it was love. Chloe had wanted someone to take her for everything she was and love her for it, but her ex-boyfriend did not. And because of him, Chloe's trust issues became worse. She became even more guarded. If Pietro sat down next to her while she was reading, writing or god forbid sketching she quickly closed the book. She turned to him, but her eyes did not meet his gaze like she did not trust him. She always hid her journal as well as her sketchbook from him. There was nothing bad in there, but when people looked at her stuff she felt so uncomfortable.

Chloe had many different forms of exhibiting her trust issues. It took Pietro awhile to realize how she avoided situations where that trust could be breached. He noted that she never changed or showered when he was near. If he was in the bedroom that connected to the bathroom she was in, she did not change unless she had too. Many times Chloe would be awake when he woke for training (her insomnia did that for her) and she waited until he left to start her day. Chloe also almost never turned her back from him and she did there was a mirror in front of her so she could see behind her. And anytime they entered a room she searched for at least three exits (her dad ingrained that in her and her siblings that so it was more of a taught habit than anything). She still never relaxed completely and if they did decide to sleep next to each other she did everything to stay awake until Pietro fell asleep first.

Pietro tried not to push her too far, he did not what to push her boundaries. He that their relationship was already pushing those boundaries. He knew they were not a typical boyfriend and girlfriend, she was not ready for that. But he was willing to go slow so Chloe could be comfortable. Whenever he put his arm around her or grabbed her hand he asked 'is this okay', he knew whether she meant it or not. He always asked if she was comfortable or if they were in a public setting he asked if she wanted to do something else. Pietro wanted Chloe to know that he truly cared for her. He fought the want to kiss her into oblivion or just hold her.

Chloe was still getting used to any type of affection, no matter who gave it. Even when Bruce talked with her and he hugged her, she still tensed. She was not used to any form of contact no matter the intentions. Even when she and Wanda were watching TV and something had happened that the blonde had predicted. Wanda nudged her and Chloe jumped about ten feet in the air.

Chloe was still getting used to so many different types of people around her. Every day she had to force herself out of her room and bed just to see people. Some days she did not want to get out of bed she was so anxious and depressed. Pietro was trying to motivate her without going too far.

Then Chloe brought up something he did not think about. She mentioned that after they left Hawaii they could visit California for a day or two. She got excited as she talked, "I can show you this really cool spot of beach that's hard to find but great for surfing, I could introduce you to my one teacher I babysat her kids who are friends with my sister, we could see Tori, maybe we could go to _Disneyland_ it's less than three hours away, and I was thinking," she paused to rub her wrist, "I could bring you to see Joey." She smiled awkwardly.

Pietro smiled at that last part. This was Chloe's way of introducing him to her twin. Since they could not meet face to face this was the next best thing. Based on the way he was raised it took him time to understand how Chloe honored the deceased. He was used to candle's lit and prayers said while Chloe did those things she also went to where the person was buried. In Sokovia there were few graveyards because it was less expensive to cremate those who had passed.

Pietro agreed with her first suggestion but did not want to go through with her next one, "I was talking to my therapist, Michelle, she gave me a suggestion that might help the grieving process. I know you're not going to like it, but I've been thinking it over and it could be beneficial to me." Her nervous smile had dropped and Pietro saw pure anxiety on her face. "I was thinking of confronting my ex, Brad." Surprisingly Chloe looked him directly in the eye when she said this.

Pietro barely blinked, " _Sakra si; nebudete nikam v blízkosti tohto monstra!"_ Pietro practically spat out. Chloe did not speak his native tongue but she knew that what he said must have had a few expletives thrown in there. Pietro did not hide the anger in his eyes or this heavy breathes from her. But Chloe was trying to conceal her fear from him; the fear she felt when anger was omnipresent in situations. Pietro's eyes softened and out all of the things he wanted to say he quietly voiced one question. "Why do you want to see him," he cupped her cheek as he paused, "do you still love him?"

Tears formed in Chloe's eyes at the inevitable question she did not want to answer. "In some ways. I'm not _in_ love with him, but I still love him. Whenever I start to remember the good times with him I get farther away from getting over him. Maybe seeing him in a prison for all of the things he has done will help me. I want to look at him and ask him about why he hurt my brother even when I stayed. When I testified against him I used an analogy to describe why I stayed with him: it was similar to junk food, you love the flavor and you keep eating it even though you know it's good for you. You know the risks the good parts take over." Chloe looked down, but Pietro moved her face to his and he kissed her sweetly.

It was a few days later that their first real fight happened. The two were talking about their visit to California they were sitting in a semi-public setting in the common room, only his sister, Vision, Nat, Bruce, Steve, and Bucky were there. And since Chloe was so comfortable around those people she was okay with the conversation up until the fight. She was sitting next to Pietro with her legs thrown over his lap while facing him.

Pietro suggested that maybe Chloe could talk to her mother while they were in California. He was only trying to suggest that they talk and try to meet a conclusion. Pietro did not understand how deeply Chloe and her mother's relationship was broken. That there was a lot of deep-seated issues he knew nothing about. He only saw the surface, which he thought could be fixed. He only saw a warring mother and daughter. Pietro knew that if his mother was alive and they were fighting he would do anything to fix it. Because of his parents' death and his near death experience he never how fragile and short life truly was.

Once Pietro gave her his suggestion her legs came away from his lap. "Pietro, sweetie, I don't think that's a good idea. She and I never got along." Chloe looked down and not at him. "I understand what you're trying to do, but it's not going to work." Pietro's face looked confused and she continued, "you wish you could spend time with your mom and since I have mine you think I should make up with her."

Pietro grabbed her hands, "Chloe, I think you are lucky to have your mom and you should spend time with her while you can." He was trying to get her to see what he was trying to say.

"Sweetie, just drop it, please, there's a huge difference between our mothers, okay?" Chloe stood and turned to walk away. She could feel the panic pumping through her veins getting throughout her body faster by the second. Whenever her mom was brought up she panicked, thinking the women would appear. But now Pietro wanted to _visit_ her. That was too much.

Everyone was aware of the small argument currently going on, however, everyone watched when Pietro stood. "I do not understand the difference!"

Chloe spun on her heel and exasperatedly yelled, "Your mother gave actually gave a shit about you!" Pietro's breath hitched at her exclamation, she surely did not think that. Right? "Your mom kissed you goodnight and wiped your tears and told you sweet things when you were upset. She didn't tell you she never wanted you or that you were a fucking waste. You don't have scars from your mom, and I don't just mean mental scars, I mean physical scars. Mothers are kind, they love you, and when you wake up in the middle of the night crying because you had a dream that the bad people your dad fought killed him, they calm you down and tell you that your dad can take them right? Right? Because that's what mom's do. Not my mom, she slapped me across the face and told me to shut the hell up. When you're sick they take care of you right? Not your uncle who skips school and misses a huge test because you don't have the strength get to the bathroom or pull your hair back." Pietro's eyes darted to a sheepish looking Bruce and back to a panicking Chloe.

Chloe continued her rant. "And your mother sounds sweet from what you told me, she does. She never locked you in your room or told you that she wished she only had your twin and not you. And Pietro if I had your mother I would talk to her, but we have very different mothers. Because I know for a _fact_ that you could without a doubt say your mother loved you. I can't. I cannot recall a single time my mom said she loved me or was proud of me." Chloe walked toward Bruce, shaking as she cried. "She doesn't love me. How come she doesn't love me? How come she hates me?" And she then sobbed in his arms.

Bruce began to soothe her, he rubbed her back and told her she was alright. He wanted to say everything was okay, but it was not. Chloe had too much on her shoulders and the guilt was eating at her. All she ever wanted was to make people happy, especially her mother. Bruce recalled her studying until she fell asleep sitting right up or being careful when drawing or cooking trying to make things perfect. Chloe was a perfectionist by nature, always trying to make everything she did flawless. He remembered her looking at her school work or drawings and muttering 'maybe she'd like it if I had written neater' or 'maybe she'd be proud if I had done the math on number nine right and had gotten that one hundred' or 'maybe she would hang it up if I made this line straighter and added more green in it'. Always looking for approval.

Bruce would always try to tell her that her work was good, always pointing out the good things she did. Chloe would look at him and say 'uncle B, I could scribble something down and you'd compare it to Da Vinci'. Chloe was so critical of herself and his sister was no help. His family was known for the high standards Bruce's mom had set and his sister Bonnie set the high bar higher. Chloe could bring home only A's while she was more lenient with Joey. Bruce remembered his sister's response to someone questioning her parenting. She would say "the 'rents were stricter wit' us. Joey is perfect, he's got football to worry 'bout, but if I'm stricter with her she won' be such a screwup. Jus' look at Bruce, he'll be a big motha-fuckin' mistake, he already is. He was a produc' of a drunk'n St. Patty's day party for fuck's sake." She took a swing of drink and giggled. She had fucking giggled, signaling his other siblings to join in.

Bruce knew what his sister was like but he was still mad at Pietro for getting Chloe so worked up. It took her a while to calm down and Pietro stayed away. Though he wanted to apologize he knew to give her and her uncle some space. In fact, Chloe apologized to him for making such a scene and for what she had said. Pietro was amazed that she was apologizing for something that she had no control over, he knew if she had control over her emotions at that moment it would have happened in such a public place. Almost everything she did amazed Pietro because she had so much going on and still she got up every morning and faced the music.

* * *

Chloe felt her breath hitch as she stared at him. The person who had killed her brother was smirking back at her like this was a fucking game. Before he had entered she tried thinking of all the good things that had happened recently and that were going to happen. She had been reliving her two friend's wedding that had happened a few days before. Chloe had been thinking about spending time with Pietro and her sister, but every good thought had evaporated when she saw him.

She wanted to cry when she saw him because the last time he looked so confident was when he had killed her brother. But she felt more than just a need for tears. Many emotions coursed through her veins but the ones she expected were not there.

Chloe did not feel her pulse quicken and her breath hitch the same way she used to. That was joy, but this reaction was full of rage. Rage she had never felt with him. She had always felt love or regret for upsetting him, then the fear would kick in. She only felt rage because she did not see him as her "loving" boyfriend anymore, no all she saw was the sycophant who choked her brother to death with a smile on his face. Like his face now and it brought back rage she only associated with herself before this moment.

Along with the love she once felt the guilt was gone as well. When he was on trial she had felt so guilty for everything she threw up before going to court every day. Chloe had felt guilty because if she did not date him, or if she did not upset him her brother would still be alive. And if that meant still being with Brad for her brother to be alive she would do it in a heartbeat. She had felt so guilty that he was in jail because of her but as she looked at him, she could not find it in herself to feel that way before. But her love for her brother had always been stronger.

Brad was leering at her from across the mirror, he sat comfortably like he had not been in prison for the past ten months. Like he had been right next to her the entire time. He picked up the phone and began to chuckle, "I was getting worried. You hadn't come to see me at all. I was starting to think you moved on, but you can't can you? Now, let's be reasonable, go tell the cops you lied and get me outta here. We can be together, everything I said that night was just my broken heart talking. So what d'ya say?" He smiled his award-winning smile that had once had her swooning.

With a steady breath Chloe told him no. Brad blinked in surprise looking at her face. The part she knew was inevitable came and his temper had been stoked. He began to whisper-yell at her because he knew yelling would get him thrown back in his cell. He began to belittle and insult her, calling her names galore. Chloe's face remained as stoic; after years of her family's jabs, she had learned to keep her face neutral as could be. Getting upset or arguing back was what the wanted and staying calm made them pissed. And though she was quiet and soft spoken she could argue like a lawyer. She had learned what to say and what not to say, she learned to act when someone was yelling in her face.

Brad ranted and raved to her, about how Chloe was nothing without him, how she _needed_ him, all the while she sat across from him listening to this lunatic continue to affront her. When he stopped to breathe Chloe spoke up, "ya done yet?" Once again Brad blinked in surprise at her speaking. "What, surprised I'm speaking without permission? Get used to it because _you're_ going to _listen_ to _me_ for a change. I'm done. _You killed my brother_. What you did to me was one thing and everything you ' _taught_ ' me went out the window when you killed my brother. Because there was _one thing_ you knew that you forgot: family comes first." Chloe leaned on the makeshift table staring into his eyes. "I told you everything and you used it against me. You _beat_ me, you _manipulated_ me, you _hurt_ me, you _raped_ me. And I was okay with that, but I am _not_ anymore. But the thing you did not count on was the fact that a _bond betwen twins is unbreakable_. And _I did not sleep with him_ like you told the jury, that's just _wrong_. I did not come here to beg for forgiveness or to tell you I still loved you because _I never lie_. I'm here to tell you I'm moving on, I live far away from here I've got a new boyfriend who does not _hurt_ me. I've got a job and I am moving on from loving you . Because I can _never_ forgive you for killing my brother. _Buona liberazione._ " With that Chloe hung up the phone, calmly and with composure she stood and walked to the door.

Chloe did not jump when he began to bang on the glass window, yelling at her. Calling her back to him and she continued to walk on.

* * *

 _ **Translations:**_

 _ **Festa Dei Sette Pesci- Feast of the Seven Fishes (Italian) a traditional Italian-American tradition; usually on Christmas Eve. Seven different types of seafood are cooked.**_

 _ **Baccalà- A salted cod (Italian)**_

 ** _Buon compleanno- Happy Birthday (Italian)_**

 ** _Gesù, Maria e Giuseppe, dovevi dimenticare- Jesus, Mary, and Joesph, you were supposed to forget (Italian)._**

 _ **אבא- Father (Hebrew)**_

 _ **Tevilah- A Jewish purification ritual**_

 _ **Princezná- Princess (Slovak)**_

 ** _Sakra si; nebudete nikam v blízkosti tohto monstra- The fuck you are: you are not going anywhere near that monster (Slovak)_**

 ** _Buona liberazione- Good riddance (Itlalian)_**


	16. Chapter 16

**_So this a fanfic where Pietro did not die, Bruce actually "talks" (I use this term extremely lightly) with his family, and did not leave after the Ultron battle. This will be a PietroxOC because I like him happy. My OC will have mental demons and struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, self-harm, suicide, self-destructive thoughts, self-hate, rape, verbal abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, and survivor's guilt. I will put a warning at the beginnings of chapters just to be safe._**

 ** _Also, Civil War will not take place, other Marvel movies will, but not Civil War. I did not like how divided they become, I will have a conflict though, just not on such a high scale. I saw Infinity Wars and I will tell you NOTHING. Though I will say I am very shookth because of {insert spoilers here}. So let's be like Doctor Strange who saw over fourteen million endings and didn't spoil it for us. If you want to talk/rant about it PM me I will listen and respond._**

 ** _Warning: mentions of past rape, PTSD, intense make-out sessions, light sexual themes, talk of sex, Chloe and Pietro take about what they are and are not comfortable with guilt, SPIDERMAN, survivor's guilt_**

 ** _Thank you chimpnsocks, for reviewing._**

 ** _I have been crazy busy. I also stopped to take more time for therapy, I realized that I am falling back into really bad habits. I don't know how my brain works yet._**

 ** _I want to explain that some of the stories that have been brought up or will be brought up were based on things I have seen in my family. Some have in fact happened some I have just changed aspects too. I try to make Chloe's reactions as authentic as possible for someone like her. I did not want her to act tough or blow it off, I wanted to show how someone as sensitive as her would react._**

 ** _But guys THE NEW TRAILER!_** ** _I don't own RENT, William Shakespeare, The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, Marvel; only my OCs_**

* * *

Chloe almost threw up when she figured it out. The grand realization throwing her for a loop that somehow made her nauseous. And the thought of this happening to her again made her nervous. And whenever Chloe became extremely nervous she always felt sick. She was really nervous so her first response was to vomit.

Of course, she wanted to do a lot of things when the dots finally connected. Chloe wanted to jump off a building, run a marathon around the world, cry, and dance. And, sing some cheesy operatic to the heavens which seemed the most cliche thing ever. And she did not want to be cliche because then she would feel silly and unoriginal.

Hell, Chloe did not even realize it until too late. The pieces of the puzzle were simple, but she was so fucking _clueless_ she had no idea what they meant. How could she have been more stupid? Looking back there were _so many_ signs plastered _everywhere_ around her, it was like an angel had been trying to tell her but she was too stubborn to listen. The angel had been flying around, trying to show her something so obvious. It probably would slap its head in annoyance and conjure up a simpler way to get the message across. And finally, that angel was slumped over, worn out, but with a tired smirk that clearly said, 'I told you so'.

Chloe never dealt with emotions well, she always pushed them away. She preferred feeling nothing over the dark emotions she normally felt. She cried far too easily and her anxiety got bad. But she should not have nervous for Christ sake she should be happy. She should have run to Pietro to tell him. But she froze. The anxiety rose to her throat and stayed there. The signs were so freaking obvious her brother could have figured it out. (Joey noticed little details, but big things usually eluded him)

Chloe had been growing attached to Pietro rather quickly, though she tried to stop it. She was still afraid of getting close to people in general, but she was falling for him. She began counting the seconds until training, or _il Dio_ forbid, a mission was over. Time seemed to slow whenever he was not around her, even if she was relaxing with someone.

Chloe became more comfortable around Pietro. She sometimes would forgo wearing makeup around him, something she once saw as 100% necessary. She would relax into his embrace, which she rarely did with her uncle. Her father always taught her to be alert, so relaxing to touch was new. Plus, she was not a touch-friendly person, she liked someone with her while she slept so she wasn't alone. Chloe felt at home around her boyfriend, something she had not felt with her last one. With her previous relationship, she felt the need to look runway ready. Her makeup perfect and hair flawless. She also felt unease, waiting for scolding or his 'love hits' as she nicknamed them.

Pietro made her comfortable. Just the other day she was in the shower when she realized she had left her second towel on the bed (she needed two because of her hair), she asked Pietro to get it for her. Normally she would have just made do, but she wound up asking Pietro to get it for her. He used his speed to quickly open the door and kick the towel towards her in a blink of an eye. It had made her laugh, even at his insistent claims he did not see her undressed.

Pietro never pushed her into anything. Even when she was anxious he would do everything to make her as comfortable as possible. When Tony had forced everyone to a party, he had said to her 'if you want, I can tell Tony we are leaving, I know that look in your eyes'. She had just about melted on the spot.

Chloe had begun to wear her brother's junior class ring around her junior class necklace. Her junior year (her eleventh grade year she explained to the confused European) her entire class (grade) had gotten their rings or jewelry if the wanted. Her brother had gotten a big ring with his (actually their's since they were twins) birthstone, the year he would have graduated and a football number logo carved on the side. It was a gold ring and engraved on the inside was a quote from Muhammad Ali. Chloe had attached the ring to the necklace she had gotten. A gold necklace with four chains, her graduation year in Roman numerals, her birthstone, a theatre symbol, and a larger charm with a RENT quote, _"Viva la vie Boheme_ which meant live the bohemian life.

Chloe had begun talking about her brother more, which surprised her. He had died only a year ago and she was starting to have feelings again. But Pietro listened to her endless stories of her twin brother and would tell her stories of himself and Wanda.

And finally, a few nights ago when Chloe and Pietro were watching a movie. Or at least started watching a movie. Chloe had thrown her legs over his lap and her head up in the crook of his neck, seemingly her favorite place. It felt like home to her. Then they started kissing, like, _really_ kissing. His lips were warm and she could feel the scruff of his five o'clock shadow tickling her neck making her smile. And when she smiled he took that opportunity to get his tongue in her mouth.

And god, Chloe loved it. The emotion and passion had her head spinning, but she would never stop him. She wondered why he liked her, why her when probably millions of other girls wanted her spot. And they would be more willing with him. But he was going slow for _her_. Chloe did not get how she could be so special. But when she could feel his lips on hers and taste his toothpaste all those thoughts disappeared because his affection for her began to course through her veins.

Somehow, she ended up atop his lap. Chloe was straddling him as her hands ran through his hair. She was kneeling on the couch, kissing him. She eventually sat on his lap when Pietro hands on her hip guided her down. They continued kissing and kissing, the raw passion was swirling in the air around them. Pietro sometimes kissing her jaw, he loved how he barely had to apply any pressure or never had to suck for long before her skin turned red, that made him chuckle.

Chloe went to move slightly went she felt something rather, _odd_. A hardness rubbing against her. Pietro's hardness rubbing against her. In that second of feeling, it sparked something inside of her. A heat contracted inside of her that had never been stoked before. A warmth that seeped through her entire body, a foreign feeling to her. This heat was not something she could will away, or even ignore. It scared her because it was new and really different.

Chloe gasped and quickly pulled her head back. Surprised at the feeling she had frozen and done the only thing she thought logical, retreat. "What happened, _milenka?_ You are panicking again, no?" Pietro began rubbing her arms for comfort while searching her eyes for any sort of indication.

Yes, Chloe was panicking because of the heat between the apex of her thighs. And because well, she _liked_ this new feeling. Despite her blushed face and ragged breathing, she enjoyed it? No that wasn't the word. She was curious about this new feeling because before this moment she had never felt it. It had to mean something right? She knew she did not just feel things for no reason.

So did that mean she was falling in love with Pietro?

* * *

Chloe had just walked into the kitchen to see that young male, Peter, again. He had opened a jar of tomato sauce and had dipped a piece of bread in the sauce and had it raised to his mouth. He stopped when he saw Chloe, he had only ever seen her when she hurried out of the room. He wondered if he had somehow done something wrong or upset her. Mr. Stark had said his cologne had bothered her, so she must have been sensitive to smell. Still, the thought of upsetting one of the Avengers team members made him feel guilty.

Chloe looked between his tableaux form and the jar of cheap sauce next to him. She kept looking at the sauce, "what are doing?"

Peter swallowed nervously, feeling like he had been caught red-handed (which he kind of was since the sauce was red). "Uh, I got hungry, and in the cabinet was this can, and it was about to expire, so I figured I would finish it off." He answered nervously. Chloe then took the can and the piece of bread and threw them out. She went into the refrigerator and grabbed a container of her homemade gravy. She motioned for him to try it and when he did he blurted, "I think I'm in love."

Chloe and Peter began to talk to each other, finding they had a lot in common. They both went to schools where the academics were advanced, though he went to a mainly math and science based school and Chloe got an academic scholarship to her old private school. They were only two years apart in age, so school was a heavy topic. She had promised to help with English, Peter had been struggling with Shakespeare which Chloe had excelled at. She had a copy of all William Shakespeare's works written in Italian and she was in a production of " _The Fifteen Minute Hamlet_ ".

Chloe and Peter talked for a while before he asked a question that had been nagging him. "So are you an 'intern' too? Or are you like an Avenger trainee?" He wondered about her place among the team since he had yet to see any new team members mentioned.

Chloe laughed lightly, the thought of herself being a hero, let alone a superhero, was quite amusing. She was not very athletic anymore, and her athletics were once strictly dance, gymnastics, and surfing. Which would not be very helpful when fighting evil. Since the car accident, her leg prohibited her from doing this she loved. "God, no, I would not last two seconds in a fight."

Just then Pietro came speeding in, he sat down next to her and put his arm around her, causing her to jump in surprise. "She is my girlfriend," he paused, "sorry," he apologized to Chloe and kissed her cheek.

Chloe began to rub his arm that was around her, "and I'm Bruce's niece. Though the niece thing happened first, by like, eighteen years." She giggled lightly.

Chloe and Peter continued to talk back and forth for a bit longer. Mostly about dumb school assignments; Chloe ranted about close she was to a 5.0 GPA (an all-around average of 93). The only reason she dropped down to a 4.7 was that of a single grade at the end of her senior year: her calculus teacher made them write out a paragraph to explain their answers and she had accidentally used there _instead_ of their, dropping her overall GPA to a 92, and to a 4.7 and dropping her to graduating fourth in her class. Chloe had begged the teacher for leniency, extra credit, something because she was so close, he refused, saying she should pay for her stupid mistake. She had cried that night, it was so unfair, English was technically not her first language! She grew up speaking a mixture of English, Italian, and ASL. Though, she did not mind the fourth place because the top three had to write and give speeches at graduation.

Just then Bruce walked into the kitchen and Peter sat up. It reminded Chloe of a soldier standing attention he sat up so fast. He pointed to her uncle excitedly, his outstretched arm bouncing. "You're Dr. Bruce Banner!"

Bruce sighed and slightly hung his head. Of course, this kid knew _him,_ at least he called him Bruce at some point. "Yeah kid, I'm the Hu-"

Peter excitedly interrupted, "the greatest scientist of our time! There's a picture of you in my classroom and everything. Your work on pigment mutations is really interesting. Granted it took awhile for me to understand, but I wrote my research paper around it." Peter continued to ramble about Bruce's works and Bruce looked astonished. Someone actually knew him Dr. Bruce Banner and not as The Other Guy. Everyone nowadays knew The Other Guy, hell, even S.H.I.E.L.D wanted the rage-driven monster, not so much the vastly intelligent man. One of Bruce's special qualities was the ability to able to grasp concepts with ease. He skipped three grades and got four of his seven PhDs in three years before he became the Hulk, the rest on the run.

As Peter and Bruce talked about science Chloe kept looking at Peter weirdly. After a while of her looks, Peter asks, "what, you're looking at me weird."

Chloe shook her head lightly. "It's just you think very highly of him. As a highly decorated scientist whose research has reshaped science, meanwhile, I see an awkward teen who used to hide with me inside a window seat at parties while playing _Legend Of Zelda_ or _Brain Age."_ Both Peter and Bruce looked at her incredulously, though for different reasons. "Oh come on, yesterday you said I'm perpetually four in your mind!"

* * *

Pietro had been having some difficulties that past month or so. The difficulties had started long before then, but he could keep them at bay. But the last month had been hell for the Speedster.

Pietro's struggle was mostly internal but showed externally. He was trying so hard to hide it, he had been, but it was getting harder and harder. Of course, Pietro would never push the issue with Chloe, that would make him no better than Chloe's ex. But when Chloe batted her eyelashes, or giggled, or absentmindedly played with her hair, or stuck her tongue out slightly when drawing, or look at him with the most innocent look on her face, or ran her fingertips lightly on his skin, or cuddled up to him, or looked intensely into his eyes he felt the struggle surface. And do not even get Pietro started on when she spoke in Italian.

All those actions, little tiny things Chloe did absentmindedly were driving Pietro wild. Even the way she sat got his attention, she sat with her back straight as a board, her hands neatly folded in her lap, and her legs crossed. And every so often she would switch which leg was on top and reposition herself.

Pietro had been having thoughts about his girlfriend. The kind that made his heart race and his temperature rise. It sent heat rushing through his body and seem to remain his lower regions. And the thoughts he had were more frequently appearing in his mind were seeping into his dreams. Once during an Avengers briefing, he had fallen asleep and had one of those dreams. And Pietro tended to be vocal and moving during those kinds of dreams. He was just happy it did not happen in front of Bruce all though some of his other teammates were there.

Wanda would scold her brother in their native tongue when Pietro had those dreams. She could tell and she knew how her twin's mind worked. She would tell him how wrong it was to think of Chloe like that. Of her best friend (besides him) like that. She was still recovering from the things happening the year before. Wanda almost told him that if their mother was here she would not take kindly to him.

Pietro finally snapped (only slightly but still) he had said to her in their native tongue 'if I could stop myself I would, but the thoughts just appear, I try to push them away before Chloe thinks I want something!' That had floored Wanda, she saw the torment in his eyes. The light circles under his eyes, he had been leaving Chloe once she fell asleep so she did not wake to his dreams.

Chloe heard the twins talking and despite not knowing exactly what to say she decided to talk with Pietro. She was going to talk to him about their relationship, things were going well and she wanted to keep it that way. Before she did though she decided to use a technique she had learned from her therapist, Chloe wrote her brother a letter.

Chloe did this every so often, to tell him about events in her life. To help grieve for him. She wrote about things she felt, things she thought. Chloe expressed herself in her writing this way. She wrote the things that screamed in her mind, the thoughts she never wanted to say. It was mentally draining, but effective.

That's Pietro found Chloe, sitting at her desk, leaning on her arms, looking distressed, and crying. It was mostly a silent cry, but tears were flowing heavily. She was trying to calm herself down and was so focused she did not hear him come in.

Pietro rushed to her side. Ready to comfort her, she looked up at him sadly. He could see the pain in her eyes, the silent torment she tried to hide from him. The freezing feeling of depression was seeping forward into her everyday life again. Chloe was tumbling again and Pietro was there to catch her.

So, their conversation started off strong because she told him about what she wrote about to her brother. She told him what she had been feeling. Chloe told him how she felt jealous of Pietro and Wanda. And how guilty she felt because it was just _wrong_ to feel that she wanted to get her brother back like Wanda got Pietro. She wanted that relationship again. The banter, the jokes, the laughs, god, she wanted all again. She wanted to abe to see her brother every day again and to laugh with him. She wanted to Bruce to see her brother again, to complain that Joey was more taller than him and much more muscular. She wanted to tease her brother for his short memory and attention span and god what she would not give to have him use her head as an arm rest while trying not to laugh. She wanted it all back and watching Wanda and Pietro made her feel that way. Chloe just wanted her best friend back.

Pietro held Chloe as she confessed how she truly felt. Trying to think of something to say, but he really did not know what to say. He had had Wanda with him his entire life, even during the experiments he caught glimpses of her, he knew she was alright. But he never felt remotely close to how Chloe was feeling. That he could never see her again and Chloe blamed herself for her brother's death.

Pietro held her as she cried for her brother. As Chloe spiraled again and again in her thoughts. He tried to soothe her and keep her calm, but her waves of tears kept soaking him. He kissed her head and was as gentle as possible. He whispered sweet nothing into her ears. Then Pietro said, "I love you," in such a quiet voice Chloe thought she misheard him.

Chloe looked up at her boyfriend. Pietro took a breath and began, "I know you may not be ready to say it yet, but it is the truth. I want you to know that I love you, that I am here for you. I need you to know I care for you. I do not expect you to say it back, of course, but you should know."

Chloe kissed his jaw lightly, very lovingly, as she hugged him. "Pietro," she leaned into the crook of his neck. "I'm scared. I'm scared of being hurt," he moved her face to his but Chloe continued, "just in general. I know it seems stupid, but I've been hurt so many times. I'm scared to let people in. I'm scared to trust. And I'm scared to be happy; it feels wrong because Joey's gone. But despite all of this, I am so in love with you." The last two sentences were quite, but Pietro heard them.

Pietro had a wide smile along with Chloe and he kissed her. It was a sweet, slow, loving kiss that signaled where they were. They were in love. Pietro had known for a while, he did not know when he exactly fell in love, but he loved Chloe nonetheless. He had been attracted to the pale blonde from the first time he saw her. Chloe did not know when either, she had been denying her feelings for so long she was used to ignoring them. But here she was saying she loved Pietro.

Pietro kept kissing her, but she pulled away. "Pietro," she kept calling him, but he continued his attack on her neck. She pushed him away, " _Tesoro."_

Pietro smiled into her neck, still continuing his ticklish kisses. "You speaking in Italian will certainly not stop me from kissing you." He wrapped his arms around her, but stopped kissing her neck.

Chloe took a breath and started a conversation she did not want, but needed to have. "I'm also scared about being intimate." She could tell by the look on his face that he did not know what she was talking about. "I mean sex," his eyes slightly widened, "it's not fair to you. And I'm getting better, I'm think I'm close to being ready."

As much as Pietro wanted to hear it he argued with her. "Chloe I want you to be ready. And I will wait for you to be. I would rather wait for you than make you uncomfortable." Just the thought of her being uncomfortable or unsatisfied made him angry.

Chloe rubbed the side of his neck. "Well there are somethings I am more comfortable with than others. I don't think I will ever be able to put my mouth on you." Chloe's blush was full blown now. "He used that as a punishment. I blacked out a few times and you have to understand I can hold my breath for a very long period of time. But maybe if we try we can do over things. It might take awhile, and besides everything that's happened I was taught to wait until marriage. But I love you Pietro Maximoff. I want to happy with you." She smiled and kissed him.

Pietro deeply kissed her, showing her how he felt inside. "I love you Chloe Charlotte Schuyler." And he held her tightly.

* * *

 _ **Translations:**_

 _ **Milenka- sweetheart/girlfriend (Slovak)**_

 ** _il Dio- (the) god (Italian)_**

 _ **Tesoro- darling/ it literally means treasure but is used as darling (Italian)**_

 _ **So, I was thinking again and I wanted Chloe and Pietro to go a bit farther in the second to next chapter. I know it seems fast, but I think it will fall into place. I was thinking a smut scene, a gentle one nonetheless, I won't go traumatizing anyone. But what do you guys think? Is it too much? I mean I already have a make-out scene planned, that is happening.**_


End file.
